Steven Universe the rise of darkness
by jack8090
Summary: Months after everything he's been through, Steven thinks that his adventures with the gems have finally come to an end. But when a mysterious entity, older than the Diamonds itself, emerges from nowhere and starts attacking both Earth and Homeworld brutally, in an attempt to destroy him and all of his family to conquer the universe, he'll be forced to go back in action once again.
1. Prologue

Prologue

"_Where am_ _I_?", thought Steven as he found itself in an unknown place with very few light that he never saw in it's life before. It reminded him of the Diamonds palace's throne room by the, only this one was entirely black; literally.  
Everything was black: the walls, the ceiling, the floor, all in that room was entirely made out of a material that looked like solidified shadows; in fact, as Steven tried to touch a column near him, his hand drawn inside it, making the boy retreat his arm shocked; he could have sworn that the column looked solid, but in reality it wasn't!.  
"_What is this place? Why I am here?"_, he questioned himself the young hero; suddenly, the room was lightened up by purple-red flames that erupted from giant braziers that were placed at the four sides of the room, making it easier for the hybrid to see better the place where he was: It was indeed a gigantic throne room, but this one was completely different from the Diamond's one, since it had various decorations on it's walls and ceiling.  
Steven saw that the ceiling and the walls were carved with those that looked like fighting scenes between monstrous warriors from one side and, to his astonishment, gem warriors on the other side.  
Those graffiti converged all to the other side of the room, where one giant black throne was placed; a throne that was even bigger than White Diamond's one, and in complete opposition with the room, that object looked like it was made out of pure shadows that didn't solidified, as it's form was trembling, like an illusion made out of mist.  
Even though it was the only other object aside the braziers in the room, Steven felt afraid of that thing, as it looked like that it was pulsing, emitting an aura of some kind that spread terror and fear across the room.  
In that precise moment, the doors of the room opened and Steven rushed behind the column, in order to avoid to be seen; footsteps echoed in the emptiness of the room, as something entered inside and proceeded to the throne.  
Steven took a look from it's hideout and saw a warrior wearing a shiny dark armor walking to the throne; what brought Steven's attention was the warrior's body, which just like the throne, it looked like it was made of that mist of shadows that formed the throne and the face, which had nothing but a pair of flames that replaced the space where eyes normally should be.  
When that warrior arrived near the throne, it bowed down on its knees and talked, "My Lord", said the warrior with a slick tone, "The time has come; we can start acting our scheme as we planned".  
"Excellent", mumbled a voice that seemed to come from the throne of darkness, "So the Diamonds have become weaker as predicted".  
Steven was terrified, not only by the fact that the thing from the throne knew the Diamonds, but also by that voice: It was metallic, deep and seemed to ignite fear and terror in every part of the room.  
"Soon, very soon those insignificant gems and their precious Diamonds will know how it feels to live 10000 years of your existence as a shattered soul without a physical body!", declared the voice with an imperative tone, "Ombrion! My most trustful adviser and ruthless commander, send your soldiers to set on the first part of our plan: take me the heir of Pink Diamond and destroy whatever and whoever stands in your path!".  
Steven felt his heart accelerating every second after that declaration; that thing would've sent his warriors to get him? But why? Why him?.  
"Yes, My Lord", replied Ombrion, as he got back on his legs and walked out from the throne room.  
As Ombrion got out of the room, the voice started laughing deeply and slowly: a laugh that chilled Steven's blood, a laugh so full of evilness and obscurity that seemed to absorb and feed on from the flames from the braziers.  
In that moment, all the flames floated away from the braziers and aggregated in front of the throne, forming a gigantic pair of eyes that looked straight to Steven with an intense and terrifying look.  
"Steven Universe", said the voice while not stopping looking at him, "Soon you'll meet your fate!".  
Steven was paralyzed by the fear that the look and the voice of that being gave to him and was unable to say a single word or move a muscle; in that instant, the floor under his feet vaporized just like before when his hand pierced into the column and he found himself falling and screaming into darkness, with the laugh of the creature that echoed around him as he fell.

**A.N; Ok, this is my first ever attempt at writing a fanfiction based on one of my favorite TV shows of all time and since this will be a multi cross over, I'll add some of my other TV shows as well.  
I'm sort of exited that Steven Universe is getting an epilogue season (I hope it will be awesome), but since it will take forever to see the airing of the first episode (and I now it from experience), I decided to publish this ff as a relief valve to kill the time.  
About the hero that I'll insert in this fiction, I declare from the beginning that It will be a version of my own of a famous hero.  
Who is it? Well, I'll give you a couple of hints: He celebrated two anniversaries this year and his mark appeared in various cities across the world.  
**


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Steven awoke suddenly, covered in his own sweat, with that evil laugh still echoing in his head and the sight of that look still impressed in his mind."It was all just a nightmare", he said to himself, although the laugh of that thing still gave him the chills only by thinking about it.

"_Maybe some fresh air will calm myself down_", he thought, as he got up from the bed and went straight out to the balcony; outside the sky was colored in yellow, purple and red, as the sun was slowly rising up from the sea at the horizon.  
"It must be dawn", he mourned, as he watched the last traces of the night sky slowly disappear, contempling that beautiful sight that would've took the breath away of anyone that would've watched it.  
As an instinctual reaction, Steven brought his hand to the gem that was placed where normally a human bellybutton should've been; his mother's gem, Pink Diamond.  
Thinking about her, Steven's mind was quickly invaded by all the memories of the things that happened to him: the fights with Homeworld's gems, the confrontation with the Diamonds, Spinel...Remembering about all the events that he had been through, Steven felt that all of the things that he did happened because of the consequences of her mother's actions; consequences that she never faced, because she gave birth to him, renouncing to her gemstone and her life as well.  
Even though she didn't hate her, he still serbed a little of grudge for her because of those things; nevertheless, he had come to full terms with her mother actions, despite the fact that when he nominated her sometimes, things tended to become delicate, especially when the Crystal Gems and the Diamonds were present.  
"_But t__hose experiences also gave me the chance to grow up and distinguish myself from mom",_ reasoned the boy.  
Trying to thinking about something else, he then remebered about the nightmare and the creature that ordered his capture; was that dream real? Or was that just all fruit of his imagination? He clearly remeber that he didn't watch a horror movie before going to sleep last night.  
"I'll reason about it later; especially after a shower", he affirmed, as he realized how actually sweaty he was because of the nightmare; he then went back into his room, just as the first sun rays illuminated the sky, signing the beginning of a new day.

When Steven got downstairs a few hours later, he didn't find any of the Crystal Gems in the living room; this was rather unusual, as the gems were always downstairs when he woke up every morning.  
He then noticed that on the kitchen's table there were two note papers, of which Steven picked it up one of them and immediatly recognized Pearl's handwriting; It said that early that morning there had been some problems on one of the colonies in a sector of the Andromeda galaxy and since they didn't wanted to awake him, they went to the planet along the other gems, Connie and Lion included, and that they would be back as soon as possible.  
The other one was from his father; it said that he had to go to Keystone again to buy some stuff that had ran out at his car wash shop and that he would be back only at lunch.  
"Well, it isn't a big deal", said Steven, "This means that I'll have some time on my own; and now that I think about it better, why not going to the Big Donut for breakfast?".  
Five minutes later, Steven got out from the house with some money in his pockets and went straight to the shop, with the breeze of the sea and the sun of that first day of August that caressed his face.  
As he went through the town, he was greeted by a couple of gems and habitats, probably because after the event of the drill everyone considered him to be the one that saved their lives, until he reached the Big Donut, which was completely desert both on the outside and the inside, with the exception of Mr Dewey behind the counter, who was organising the donuts to sell.  
"Good morning Mr Dewey", said Steven as he entered into the shop.  
"Good morning Steven", replied Dewey behind the counter, "Let me guess; you want the same donuts as usual, do you?".  
Steven chuckled at the answer of the owner, "By now you know me too well, mayor".  
"I'll take this as a yes; It will take just a few moments", answered Dewey as he prepared the bag for the donuts.  
"_Yesterday...All my troubles seemed so far away", _suddendly a singing male voice was heard by the two.  
"Where is this music coming from?", asked Steven perplexed.  
"_Now it looks as though they're here to stay Oh, I believe in yesterday"_, the voice kept singing the song, this time with a little more of force in it's tone.  
"I don't know, but It looks like you're not the only one that has come here this morning", answered Dewey, who was as curious as Steven, "In fact, I see that someone else has sit at one of the tables".  
Despite the fact of the unusual situation, Steven decided to go take a look outside and see who that person was, "I think I'll just go take a look outside and see who it is; Would you mind keeping my donuts in stock Mr Dewey?".  
"Sure, you can come back and take them away anytime you want", replied the owner, "I'll keep them in stock for you".  
"Thank you, Mr Dewey", thanked Steven, as he went outside the donut shop to discover who the mysterious singer was.  
When he got out of the shop, Steven immediately identified who the singer was: It was a young man, whose age could have been between 20 to 25 years, with short brown hair and brown eyes, who was wearing a sport jacket with a black t-shirt underneath, a pair of jeans and New Balance shoes.  
He was playing his song with a guitar that appeared to have seen better days, as it was consumed and off colored, in contrast with the clothes that he was wearing, but despite that, the notes that were coming out seemed fine as if the instrument was brand new.  
Just as he seemed to start singing a new part of his song, he raised his look and discovered that someone had been attracted by his music, "Oh, I apologize", he said with a calm voice, "I hope I haven't disturbed someone in the shop".  
"No, don't worry, you did not disturbed anyone", replied Steven quietly, "Was that the song" Yesterday" of the Beatles that you were playing by the way?".  
"Yep, you totally guessed it", answered the guy, while putting away the guitar in a rigid custody that was placed near him, "My dad used to play that song with me for a thousand times or even more when we spent some time together; no matter how many times we played it, "Yesterday" always cheered ourselves up even in the worst days...", he paused for a while, as if he was submerged in a moment of nostalgia, "Oh, by the way, my name is Jack, Jack Stevenson", he added, extending his hand.  
Steven, despite the fact that it was kinda an odd thing for such a young person to salute in that way, extended his own hand and shook hands with him, "My name is Steven, Steven universe and it's a pleasure to meet you, Jack".  
"The pleasure is all mine, Steven", said Jack, "Say, isn't it funny that my surname reminds of your name? Steven and Stevenson; it almost seems like that destiny has made possible for us to meet; tell me Steven, do you believe in fate?".  
The teenage hybrid laughed at the question; that guy really had a good mood that was contagious," I'm not the guy that believes in fate, but sometimes I feel like that some of the things I have experienced happened because of some kind of destiny".  
"Like that thing that you have on your bellybutton?", questioned Jack, pointing the gem on Steve's body that was slightly visible under his shirt, "What is that thing? Is that a kind of new piercing or something?".  
Steven covered the gem better, slightly embarrassed that the thing that provided his powers had been brought into the conversation, "No, it's not a piercing... It's kind of a long story to explain it".  
"I see", murmured Jack, with a little bit more of interest in his voice, "Is it that kind of story that includes strange things and unbelievable events?".  
"Sort of", said the boy.  
"Good, because I like that kind of things", answered Jack with enthusiasm, "So, why don't you start telling me about your story while I order up something? I still have to do breakfast".  
"In that case, you better prepare yourself, because it's going to be a very long story", he warned.  
"No worries, I'm used to things that last for a while", replied Jack with fluency.

About an hour later, after they had finished breakfast and left the Big Donut, Jack and Steven were walking around the town.  
When Steven finished to tell him about his story, Jack was completely speechless, "Well, all I can say about this is...Wow", he said to him with an impressed voice, "So let me put this straight: you are the son of a rebel alien gem, who in reality was a matriarch, that fought a massive battle against her own homeworld, you inherited her gem when she gave you birth and experienced like a thousand of adventures?!"  
"If you want to put it in that way, it is", said Steven, slightly diseased by the situation.  
"If you want to have my opinion, I think that this is the most incredible and amazing story I've ever heard in my life", affirmed Jack, with still an amazed tone of voice, "They should make a movie about this, like Tim Burton's "Big fish"; you know, the one that talks about the incredible life of the old protagonist".  
Steven chuckled about the prospective of his life becoming a movie, "I definitely doubt about it; but what about you? Why are you here in Beach City?".  
"Well, consider me as a passing tourist", replied Jack, "I came here with my motorbike early this morning; my family built a house for our vacations when I was 3 years old about 50 kilometers away from this city, so I used to spend summer vacations in these places, but I've never been here; say, would you mind to show me some of the things around the town, so I will be able to orient myself? If you have time, of course".  
"Of course I will", answered Steven back, "After all, I don't have a lot of things to do right now".  
In the hours that followed up, Steven took Jack visit every part of Beach City; they went from the arcades (where Jack astonished Steven by beating all of the high scores of many games, in spite of the fact he declared from the beginning that he hadn't touch a videogame for years), to the lighthouse (where they enjoyed the wind coming from the sea, until a seagull dropped a bomb on Jack's expensive sport jacket, which caused Steven to laugh at the ferocious outburst that he cursed againts the volatile).  
By midday, the two seemed to know each other as a couple of friends that hadn't seen each other for a long time and had finally reunited.  
"I'll tell you, you've made this day one of the best days I've ever experienced in my whole life", said at one point Jack, while they were walking on the shore.  
"Don't be so exaggerated", replied Steven modestly, "We only spent just a few hours together"  
"No, I've got to tell you; I've never felt so alive since... Forever!", affirmed Jack sincerely, "Even thought that it was just a couple of hours, it was the most satisfying thing I've ever done before; now I know how it feels to have a friend".  
"What do you mean by that?", asked Steven curiously, "You've never had friends?".  
At that question, Jack's face became darker, as if a cloud had appeared and obscured him, "Not exactly; let's just say that the since I was 7, things became more difficult and harsher for me".  
"In which sense?", demanded the young hybrid.  
Before Jack could answer, an angry voice called Steven from the behind, "Hey, Universe!".  
The two boys looked behind to see that someone was heading towards them; It was a teenager that looked a couple of years older than Steven, was wearing clothes that looked fashionable and expensive and the expression that was painted on his face didn't promise anything of good coming up.  
"Oh no, It's Kevin", mourned desolated Steven, annoyed to see his old nemesis.  
"Let me guess; an old acquintance that has annoyed you in the past?", asked Jack calmly, surprising Steven, "How did you...?".  
"I've learned to recognize and deal with that kind of people", replied Jack in all of his serenity, "If he's gonna disturb you too much, I'll drop in and teach him a lesson that he'll never forget".  
When Kevin reached for them, all three of them were standing at each other on opposite sides of the shore, like in a western duel, only waiting for the first one that would've done te first move.  
"Well well well Universe", started talking Kevin with an arrogant tone of voice, "Long time no see; from what I've heard in the town it seems like that you've become some kind of celebrity here".  
Steven sighed irritated for the tone of voice of Kevin, "I'm relieved to see you Kevin; now, what do you want?".  
"You know exactly what I want, you twerp!", answered back angrily, "You've ruined my big party 2 years ago and now you must pay for it!".  
"You're still angry for that?", replied Steven, "You just wanted me and Connie to fuse in Stevonnie only to raise the hype of your party back then!".  
"And don't you think that I don't remember what happened next!", countered Kevin with more fury, "By abbandoning my party, you've humiliated me and destroyed my popularity! I didn't get the chance of having my revenge on you back then; but since I've heard that today your family, Connie and that furball of your pet are out on their stupid magical business, I am free to make you pay once it for all!", concluded Kevin, making his knuckles crack.  
"Wo wo wo, wait up a second!", said Jack, dropping into the conversation, "So you want to beat this boy only because of the fact that he ruined some stupid party of yours? That's total bullcrap!".  
Kevin launched a furious look straight to Jack, "I don't know who the hell you are, but you better stay out of this; It's a personal thing between me and Universe".  
"Oh hell no!", replied vigorously Jack, "You are not gonna harm my friend just fof the fact that he ruined a so called important party of yours; If you want to take on Steven, you'll first have to pass on my body, that's for sure".  
The tension between the two was growing so much that the air had become so thick that it could've been cut with a knife; furthermore, a small group of habitants of Beach City, both humans and gems, had gathered around them to see where the confrontation would have lead.  
"Great, this confrontation has become a new attraction for everyone", thought Steven.  
"Then let's resolve it in this way; do you have a car?", demanded Kevin.  
"Of course I do", answered Jack firmly, while crossing his arms.  
"Then I'll tell you how it's going to be: we'll meet again out of the border of Beach City at midnight for a car race and we will race at full speed from that point straight to the temple of those stupid gems" "Do not call the Crystal Gems stupid!", protested Steven indignant.  
"Shut your mouth, Universe!", silenced Kevin with a glare to the boy, before returning his attention back to Jack, "As I was saying, we will race at full speed from the border to the temple and the first of the two of us who gets down there wins!".  
"What's the stake?", asked Jack, not intimidated even a little.  
"If I win, you'll stand aside from my way and let me free to make Steven pay for what he has done to me!", answered Kevin.  
"That does sound right", replied Jack with an approval tone, "But if I win the race, you're gonna excuse to Steven for being a jerk with him; and not only that, you'll excuse with all his family, Connie and even his pet, whatever it is; this is my condition, take it or leave it".  
After a minute of silence that seemed to last forever, in which both the two opponents kept looking at each other, finally Kevin reluctantly stretched his hand out, "I accept".  
Jack stretched his own hand and responded with a poderous handshake, "Deal; I'll be at the border at midnight".  
"See you there", responded Kevin, before hissing to Steven, "Prepare for defeat, Universe", and then leaving the place without looking back at the duo.  
When he went away, Jack turned his attention to the public, "Ok, show's over folks! Go back to your own business!", he yelled, making the crowd to separate in the town; then, he and Steven went straight to a parking area not far from there, where Jack retrieved his motorbike, which turned out to be a Harley Davidson.  
"You shouldn't have accepted that challenge", said Steven, as Jack was trying to start the engine of his vehicle, "Kevin is just a selfish arrogant that is not worth the shot challenging".  
"He deserved that", replied Jack while still trying to turn on the engine, "That annoyer doesn't have the right to take on you only because he wants revenge for a stupid party that you didn't ruined by your own intention".  
"But what about the car race?", asked Steven worried, "You are not gonna seriuosly race againts him, are you?"  
When he finally managed to turn on the Harley's engine, Jack responded with a sly smile, "Oh, **I am **gonna race againts him, I can promise you this; and trust me when I say that tonight I'm gonna inflict to that vain dude the biggest defeat that he's ever faced".  
"How?", demanded Steven perplexed.  
"Just trust me; Wait for me until midnight and believe in my words; until then" he said, as he put on a pair of black glasses from his sport jack, "I'll be back"; he then gave gas to the Harley and sprinted away on the road.  
"I hope so", murmured Steven, as the motorbike with it's peculiar passenger got further away every second it passed.

As Jack sprinted on the road with his motorbike, he thought about what happened in the city: the hours that he spent with Steven, the hype of the challenge againts Kevin, the slight fear of losing againts that bully, the determination to win...Even though all those sensations were different from each other, they all ignited a common feeling that Jack couldn't define inside him.  
"_It's almost seems like that those experiences have reignited life into me",_ he thought while driving, "_I swear to myself that I've never felt so alive since...That day"._  
When that thought hit his mind, Jack almost felt like a part of his conciousness, a part harmed and destroyed of him, was trying to come back to life; but then, just as that sensation arrived, it all dissolved into the wind, whiped away almost as fast as it came.  
"_I can't think about it_ now", he continued, _"Now I need to go get myself ready for the race of tonight"._  
About an hour later, he arrived to a luxorious detached house placed nearby a cliff and pressed a button on the gate's intercom.  
"How can I help you?", asked an old voice with a british accent.  
"Alfred, It's me", replied Jack.  
"Master Jack! I was starting to worry after your morning escape", answered with relief the voice, "You just arrived in time for lunch; it's all almost ready".  
"Thanks Alfred, you're the best", said Jack with a smile, "Listen to me; after lunch, I need your help to get back on its feet one of the cars from my collection".  
"May I ask you why would you need it?", demanded the other with a tip of curiosity in his voice.  
"Let's just say that is a question of honor for a friend", replied the young man firmly.  
"A friend? I see" answered Alfred with a comprensive and intersted tone, "May I ask you which car It's gonna be?".  
"Oh I know just the one", said Jack with an accomplice tone, "But now, would you mind open me the gate out here? I'm literally starving".  
**  
A.N; Okay everybody, so here we are at the end of chapter 1! Things have started out with flames and fury between my protagonist and Steven's old nemesis, but how's it going to end up? Wait until the next chapter if you want to discover it!  
I just hope to finish the Steven universe part of the fiction before the epilogue season begins, because I don't want to get influenced by how the events of the main series will go, or else I might get conflicted with the choice of rewriting or cancelling the whole story.  
Said this, see you with the next chapter,  
Jack8090.  
**


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A couple of minutes after Jack's departure, Steven headed towards his home at the Crystal gems's temple, still trying to figure out how Jack could have possibly accepted without thinking twice the race against Kevin that night.  
"_How is he gonna be able to win?_", was the question that was repeatedly ringing into his head; the last time he raced against Kevin, he couldn't stand a chance against his powerful car, but on the other hand, he did not know what type of car Jack would have brought for the race, which was the only possibility for him to avoid the revenge that Kevin had in place for him.  
While reasoning on this thought, he arrived at his house, where he noticed that his dad's van was parked nearby, suggesting that he could have returned from Keystone.  
When he enetred into the house, he found all the Crystal Gems, alongside his dad, Connie and Lion, who was the first one to greet him, as he tackled him and started licking his face with joy.  
"Aagh! No buddy, please stop!", said the boy, as he tried to defend himself from that unexpected and slobbery attack from his pet, "I had a shower just this morning!".  
"Aaah, come on Stevo, he's just so happy to see you!", replied Amethyst, while still trying to not laugh for that scene along the others.  
"Yeah well, I'm happy to see you all", said Steven, as Lion allowed him to get up and clean as best as he could from his saliva, "Now, speaking about something else, what was that emergency that happened on one of the colonies?".  
"It all happened very early this morning", answered Garnet, while readjusting his visor, "We didn't want to awake you and since Connie was already available, we met her while she was jogging, we decided to go all along without disturbing you; one of the colonies in the Andromeda galaxy was struck by a violent earthquake and we were called for assistance".  
"An earthquake?", asked Steven worried, "Were there...Any loss of gems?"  
"Luckily not", continued Pearl, "But the violence of the earthquake shattered...I mean, destroyed many of the buildings from their fundations; there were thousands of evacuations and the tension was almost everywhere, but in the end, everything turned out ok and the repair works were started as soon as possible by the bismuths and the quartzes".  
"Before you could've arrived here Lapis, Peridot and Bismuth went back to Little Homeworld to complete some minor repairs", concluded Connie.  
"What about you, little man?", asked Greg, "What have you done on your own while we were away?".  
"Well, I can say that I have experienced a very interesting morning while you were away", said akwardly Steven.  
"What do you mean?", asked Connie curiously.  
While Steven started to tell about his day, Pearl started to prepare the lunch, helped by Garnet; when Steven ended up his story by the end of the meal, everyone was astonished.  
"So let us put this straight; this guy that you met and befriended, Jack, has challenged Kevin for a car race?!", asked Amethyst completely shocked.  
"Yeah, but he didn't seem to fear Kevin or the race", replied Steven, "He firmly said that he would've done it without holding himself back".  
"Isn't this kinda suspicious?", said Pearl, while collectiong the dishes to wash, "I mean, you have only met this young man only today and, after only a few hours that you have talked to him, he suddendly stands on your side against Kevin; isn't this a little suspicious?".  
"Actually, by how you are putting it, it kinda is", continued Steven, "But Jack seemed totally honest when he said that he promised that he would've come back for the race tonight; He also looked sincere when he had never felt better than ever while we spent those hours together".  
"Maybe Pearl is right about questioning the affordability of your new "friend", Steven", spoke Garnet, "But, if you really think that this Jack is ok, probably you should trust him until proven otherwise; just to be sure about his loyalty".  
"I think you're right about it, Garnet", answered relieved Steven, "Now, just for thinking about something else, why don't we go to the arena for some training exercise?".  
"We're officially in, Steven!", said Amethyst with enthusiasm.  
"I'm in as the support coach as well!", added Greg.  
"Well, even though we only came back a few hours ago, I don't think that this is a bad idea", commented Pearl.  
"Then let's go!", exclaimed the young hybrid, walking along the others to the Warp pad, before teleporting to the Sky Arena.

After countless hours of infinite training, everyone at the sky arena was completely exhausted, yet also incredibly happy and satisfied with it.  
Steven had been fighting with all of his energies and his strength, and the results of the training had been astonishing; his partnership with Connie guaranteed him countless victories and ties over the gems.  
Even when later Bismuth, Lapis and Peridot joined the group, they still had been able to hold up well, thanks also by their familiarity with their fusion technique.  
In fact, as the training went on, Steven's mind was engulfed with thoughts that he had never made; thoughts that suggested him that his friendship with Connie...Could have been more than just a simple friendship.  
Steven was flustered because of those things; but as he reasoned more about it, he thought that probably it could have been the time to make the important move from his side.  
So, when everyone was about to return to the Warp pad to teleport again back home, he brought Connie into a spot at the board of the arena, away from the sight of everyone else.  
"So, what did you want to say of so important?", asked Connie.  
"Well, I wanted to ask you to come with me for the race of tonight", said Steven, "I'm not sure if Jack will be there , in the case he will maintain his word; only if you are available of course...".  
"Of course I'll be there with you!", answered Connie with comprehension, "We promised it together, remember? We're Jam Buds".  
"_Or maybe even more_", he thought the young gem, "_Come on, Universe! Do your move!_".  
"You know, there's something else that I want to tell you about", added Steven.  
"What is it?", demanded the girl with some curiosity.  
Steven took a deep breath before starting to talk again, "Connie, what i'm trying to say is that... That I..." "Steeeeven! If you are not coming over, I'll have the honor of eating all of your dinner this evening!", yelled Amethyst from behind.  
"Never mind", said Steven, slightly disappointed by that unexpected interruption.  
"Well, in that case, we better hurry up, or Amethysts will not leave you anything", replied Connie, slightly amused by the situation, while heading with Steven to the pad.  
"_There will be another chance to do it_", thought the hybrid on the way, "_If there will be another chance_".

As Jack was finishing dinner in the dining room of his house, he watched the sun going down from the windows of glass, coloring the sea with a multitude of brightful colors that shined on the surface of the water.  
Such a beautiful scene with a warm atmosphere that luckily the position of his house was able to provide; but still, despite the incredible scenario that would have took the breathe away from anyone who would have watched it, Jack felt some kind of emptiness inside him: a feeling that he had experienced before, but now seemed ten times stronger.  
It had been since he left Beach City and reached his house that the presence of that emptiness had taken place.  
"Could it be that finally, after all these years and thanks to that boy, Steven, I've been able to find that kind of happiness again?", he mourned, while nibbling the rest of his meal.  
A few seconds later, a man dressed with an old fashioned smoking entered in the dining room; the man appeared to be around fifty years old and had a face that looked severe, but at the same time even gentle (A.N: the butler of my character, if you want to imagine it, has the same appearance of the one of the Osborn family from the Spider-Man trilogy with Tobey Maguire).  
"I'm sorry to disturb you during your dinner, sir", announced the butler with a British accent in his voice, "But I've come to inform you that the last tests on your car have been done: the vehicle is fully prepared and ready for your personal night race".  
"Thanks Alfred", said Jack, with no emotion in his voice.  
"Pardon me, sir, but I don't think that you are totally okay", replied the old man with a little bit of worry, "Is there something that is bugging you?".  
"It's just that... I can't tell it for sure", continued the young man, "But It feels like some part of me it's missing; it's been since I left that city that this sensation has been tormenting me".  
"Well, then I would suggest you to go back there and see if you are able to find out the answer to your question", said the other with an incouraging tone.  
"Maybe you are right about it", mumbled Jack, "Oh, by the way, has **that thing** that I asked you for been put into the car?".  
"Of course it was", replied Alfred, "But may I ask you, just like for the car, what was the purpose of getting it?".  
"It's for using it as a last minute weapon", answered him, with a cockish smile on his face, "Just in case everything goes wrong".  
"I see", said Alfred, almost guessing the plan of his master, "In this case, I'll let you finish your dinner, sir", added the butler, walking out of the room and leaving Jack alone.  
"_I don't know why, but I've got a good feeling about the race of tonight_", he thought, while eating the rest of his meal, "_Tonight it's going to be one of the greatest night of my life, that's for sure!_".

After Steven had dinner with the others at the temple, he went out for a walk on his own until he reached the top of the cliff where the statue of Obsidian had been erected on its back and the lighthouse had its place.  
He said to the gems and Connie that he wanted to stand for a little of time alone by himself, before going with Connie to the race that would have taken place in about two hours againts Kevin.  
As he was submerged into his thoughts while looking at the sea, wondering about what kind of way the events that would have took place in a handful of hours would have taken, he felt some kind of presence behind him and a sensible temperature drop, as if a blow of cold wind was heading towards him; suddendly, a very deep and cavernous voice, a voice that gave him the chills, as it reminded of the creepy one from his nightmare, echoed behind his back, "Uuuniiverse...".  
Just as Steven was about to turn around to see what kind of thing he had behind him, another voice, this time familiar, called for him, "Steven, you and Connie better go, or else Kevin will think that you two are cowards!".  
When Steven heard the voice of the gem calling for him, all that creepy atmosphere that surrounded him suddendly disappeared, as if the presence of Amethyst's voice had seemed to have vanquished that evil presence that was there a few seconds before.  
_"Again that presence; __I seriously wonder what kind of creatures would really like to get their hands on me",_ he thought, before answering back to Amethyst that he would have come soon.

When Steven and Connie went to the point at the border of the city where the race would have taken place, to their surprise they discovered that a large part of Beach City's population and local gems had gathered there too; the race must have been received as a seroius challenge, since almost everyone that they knew was there.  
When they arrived, Lars and the Off Colors greeted them, "Hey there Steven, how's it going?".  
"Everything okay, at least for now", he responded, while observing the crowd, "It seems like the news of the race have become quite popular".  
"You bet it did!", replied Lars, "Ever since it was told that an unknown person had challenged Kevin to a car race for tonight, the news has spread like wildfire, so it was natural that everyone knew about it; Sadie said that she would have loved to see the race, but unfortunately she and the others are still on their regional tour and they couldn't give up".  
"Speaking about Kevin", said Rhodonite, while looking irritated to him nearby "Ever since he arrived here with his car, he kept saying that he would have won the race like it was a small thing, but he said it like he already had victory into his pocket".  
Kevin in fact seemed to enjoy the atmosphere, as he was laughing and talking with his gang while hanging on his car, which was shining as if he had passed the entire day polishing it; when he saw that Steven had arrived there, he smiled evilly, as if he was alredy foretasting the humiliation that he would have inflicted to him.  
_"Jack, you better come in time and with a very powerful car, or we're not gonna stand a chance"_, he thought the hybrid worried.  
As time slowly went on, not even a single car passed nearby the place; when his phone signed five minutes to midnight, Steven started to think that Jack would have never come.  
"Well, Universe", declared arrogantly Kevin, "It's almost midnight and your friend has not arrived here yet: so, unless a miracle happens, I think that I can say from right now that I am the...", Kevin's sentence was left unfinished, as the roar of a very powerful engine resounded not away from them; everyone turned their heads around where the sound was coming from and wowed with great suprise as a car headed towards them.  
That car, however, wasn't a normal one: It was a thin and polished black vehicle, with various parts of its body and its wheels, which had a bat logo where the studs should have been, interspersed by blue neon lights and what it appeared to be a crest in the middle of the back part, which had a turbine that was spitting fire.  
When the car stopped in front of the crowd, the hatchback automatically opened forward, revealing the driver of that amazing car: Jack himself.  
"What's up, people? Did I arrive in time for the race?", asked the young man with a enthusiastic smile on his face.  
The only answer that he received was a crowd of people and gems that looked at him speechless, as if he had emerged from another dimension; Kevin in particular was red with anger because of his arrival, while Steven was the most astonished of all; then Padparadscha broke the mood, "I expect the arrival of a strange vehicle".  
Jack sighed, "It's the car, right? Anyone envies me because of it; but enough talk! You and I had a race, Kevin, am I right? So let's do this!", he yelled, giving gas to the car and making the engine roar vigorously.  
Without even saying a word, but still launching poisonous looks to both Steven and Jack, Kevin went to his car and positioned it behind a strip that had been drawn on the sand as a starting line.  
Jack on the other hand moved his car with all the calm in the world right next to Kevin's one; but when he aligned his vehicle with the one of his opponent, he leaned over the rail of the car and called out, "Hey Steven! I have an extra seat here, which is empty at the moment; why don't you come here and sit next to me?".  
Steven was unsure to accept that invitation, since he was still shocked by the fact that Jack had come with a very strange car, but when he looked at Connie, the girl sent him a mute answer with her eyes and nodded; he then went to Jack's car and entered into the vehicle; Jack was aside him, with his sly smile while holding the steering wheel, which had a bat emblema where the clackson was.  
"Are you ready?", he asked to the young hybrid, while turning on a switch on the control panel, which made the hatchback automatically close, "We're gonna let Kevin eat the dust, and after this night, I'm sure that he won't disturb you anymore".  
"After this night, you'll have to explain me a lot of things about you too", replied Steven.  
"Be sure that I will", assured the other, while turning on the engine, "Now, brace yourself, because the engine of this car is gonna make us high five the sky; and I really mean it".  
Both of the cars engines started roaring louder than ever, as Ronaldo positioned aside and prepared to give the starting signal, "On your marks!", he shouted, "Ready...Go!".  
When Ronaldo gave the signal, Jack's car jerked forward with such power that he sent Kevin's one into a spin, making it stop after three-four gyrations, much to his owner's anger, while the other continued on his way, straight to the Crystal Gems's temple.  
"Wow, now that's what I call a hot start!", exclaimed Ronaldo after that lightning start, "I only hope they'll be able to stop in time, or else who knows what is gonna happen!".

At the temple, the Crystal Gems, Lion and Greg were waiting for the arrival of the winner's car, enormously hoping that the winners would have been Steven and his mysterious friend.  
"Don't you think that maybe we should go to take a look to see who's coming?", suggested Pearl.  
"Relax P, they'll be here in just a few seconds", replied Amethyst.  
"Amethyst is right Pearl; we just nead to", Garnet was unable to finish the sentence that a black and polish car stopped suddendly after a long and noisy braking right in front of the temple.  
"What the heck is that thing?!", exclaimed Peridot surprised.  
Just after a few moments, the hatchback of the car opened to reveal the passengers: Steven and a young man with short black hair, who they supposed to be Steven's new friend, Jack.  
The two boys looked at each other, before bursting out into a scream of joy and giving each other a five, "We did it!", shouted Jack, "I told you that Kevin stood no chance againts me!".  
"That was the coolest thing that I've ever experinced!", replied Steven, before seeing the astonished faces of his family, "Oh".  
"What?", asked Jack, before looking into the same direction of Steven, "Oh...Sooo, I suppose that's your family".  
"Steven? Can you please give us an expanation about this?", asked Pearl, still as shocked as the others.  
"Okay; Jack, this is my family, the Crystal Gems, my dad Greg and Lion", explained Steven, embarassed by that situation, "Guys, this is Jack Stevenson, my new friend".  
"It's a plesaure to meet you", said Jack holding out his hand.  
"It is also for us, Jack", replied Greg akwardly, while shaking is hand, "But could you explain us how it is possible that you possess the Batmobile from the Batman Forever movie?!".  
"Well, first of all, I'm glad that someone finally recognise it", responded Jack calmly, "Now, about how I possess it...".  
In that moment, Kevin's car stopped right in front of the temple and his owner, who looked like angry like never before, got out of it furiously; a few moments later, Connie arrived worried.  
"Oh oh, he doesn't look happy at all", said Amethyst.  
"YOU HAVE CHEATED!", shouted Kevin angrily, pointing his finger at Jack, "YOU HAVE USED A CAR WITH A TRICKED ENGINE TO WIN THIS RACE!".  
"Oh, come on, everyone knows that the Batmobiles are built around powerful engines", countered Jack slightly bothered, "I mean, the Batmobile from the Tim Burton movies had the engine of a Chevrolet, while this one has the power of a race car; and frankly, when you challenged me you didn't placed any specifical conditions like which type of car we couldn't to use".  
Kevin was livid after that answer, "Oh, and now that I think about it, I have won the race, so as we estabilished, now you'll have to excuse with Steven and all of the other ones".  
"I'll make my excuse to them only when the fishes will start walking out of the sea!", replied Kevin venomously.  
Jack crossed his arms disappointed, "Fine; do you want to know something, then? It's midnight, this stupid race is over, I am tired of hearing your bullcrap and I want to go my home for a sleep; so see you all!", he concluded, going to his car with a firm step.  
"Why you...", mourned Kevin, before picking up a rock from the ground and throwing at Jack, who was from behind; but, despite the shout of warning from Steven, before the rock could've hit him in the head, he grabbed it with his hand using reflexes that surprised everyone who saw it and sent a look of rage to Kevin, "Normally I always avoid fights...But this one will be an exception", he said, taking off his jacket and revealing a pair of muscled arms and a chest which looked as tough as them, whose sight seemed to make Kevin have some afterthought about fighting with him.  
"Your friend is bulkier than he seems, Steven", commented Bismuth impressed.  
"What, are you scared of these? Come at me, you coward!", at that provocation Kevin launched ferociously againts him, but Jack blocked him by stopping his punches one by one, "Nice try", he said, before kicking him with strenght right in the crotch and making him fall backwards in pain.  
"That looks like it hurts", mumbled Garnet stoically.  
Kevin got back on his feet in pain and started walking backwards to his car, but still looking at Jack with rage, "This is not over, you'll pay for this!".  
"I think not", answered Jack, while reaching for his car and picking up something, "And you should definetly not mess up with me", he added, while pulling out a newspaper; it was a copy of the New York Times of that day with a main article which said **"Young bilionaire of Wall Street still in the shadows; unknown his location"**, and it had a photo of Jack dressed with a smoking wearing black glasses.  
Everyone seemed suddenly to have become statues with the most astonished expression in the world; Kevin in particular had paled up as if a ghost had suddenly took Jack's place.  
"Exactly, you definetely don't want to mess up with me", affirmed Jack, "Now, I give you two choices: excuse with Steven and the others, or go to jail with the accuse of attempting an aggression and trust me when I say that I know over the half of New York's lawyers".  
What happened in the next seconds was surprising: Kevin rapidly excused with everyone and in fear jumped back into his car and bolted away from the temple with the speed of a hare hunted by hunting dogs.  
"And finally we have managed to get rid of that wimp", ascertained Jack.  
"You still have to answer me about something", said Steven.  
"About what?" "Why didn't you tell me that you are a bilionaire?", demanded Steven.  
"And most importantly, what is a person so important as you doing in a town like this?", furhtermore asked Connie.  
Jack took a deep breath before answering, "Well, first of all, if I told you who I was since the beginning, rould you really have continued to talk to me, despite my position?; about the second question, It's hard as hell to keep running my family business, so I needed a place to find some relief from stress and, as I told you sincerily this morning, this town was the perfect place to relax; I've been honest to you all day long and trust me when I say that being a bilionaire is a very solitaire experience".  
Steven was left impressed by that answer; Jack had spoken sincerely and he felt a little ashamed of having doubted of him, but he then said "If you want to know the truth, I would have still talked to you even if you were the richest guy in the world".  
Jack was relieved by that answer and smiled back to him, "Thanks Steven, you're the most amazing guy I ever met in my life", he then turned his attention to the others, "Sorry for this scenario; I usually don't like to bring down the card of "being famous"".  
"Are you kidding? You've been a true badass againts that selfish of Kevin!", replied Lapis.  
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves", said Pearl, "But still, we thank you for having helped Steven againts that bully".  
"I'm glad to hear it; Now, however, I've another thing to say; since Steven showed me a lot of things around, why don't you allow me to return the favor by coming to my mansion near this town as my guests for the day?".  
"Really?", asked Steven surprised.  
"Consider it my way of thanking you for this incredible day", answered Jack, while giving him a piece of paper, "This is the address, the house it's just a hour by car from here, so it won't take a lot of time; now, if you excuse me", he added, returning to his car and starting the engine, "See you tomorrow; bye, Steven!".  
"Bye, Jack!", he replied, as the Batmobile roared rapidly away and disappeared a handful of seconds later.  
"It seems like we have a new friend, Steven", said Greg, "And a very important one too".  
"Yeah; I wonder what kind of day awaits us tomorrow", answered the boy, before yawning, "I guess we'll discover it only after a good sleep; good night, Connie!" "Good night, Steven", said the girl walking to her home, while Steven and the others returned inside the temple.

When Jack went back to his mansion, he was still full of adrenaline from that night and the fact didn't escape Alfred when he saw him arriving, while waiting him at the entrance , "Welcome home, Master Jack; it seems to me that your personal race went well".  
"You bet, Alfred", replied Jack, while parking his car and getting out of it, "I'll park it better tomorrow morning; now, I have something to tell you, before going to sleep".  
"I'm at your command, sir", answered Alfred, while entering into the house.  
"I have invited Steven and his friends to spend the day here tomorrow", said Jack, "So, since we will have guests, let's make sure that everything will be in order for their arrival".  
Alfred was surprised at that request, but smiled soon after, "As you wish Master Jack; before you go to bed though, there's still something that I need to tell you".  
"What is it?", demanded Jack.  
"Remember that special device that you built in order to detect those "anomalies" you've always suspected to exist?", asked Alfred.  
"Yes; Why are you asking me for it?" "Because shortly after you went away, while I was checking your hideout, that device turned on automatically and signaled that something strange had appeared in the location you were heading to for a short time; It was enough though to track down the source of it".  
Jack was shocked by that declaration, "Did you keep track of those data?".  
"Of course, sir", responded the butler.  
"Then keep the device on all night long", replied Jack, "We must discover where that source came from", he concluded, before going to the upper floor.  
"Yes sir, it will be done", said Alfred, before following his master upstairs.

"You useless minions!", yelled angrily Ombrion in the emptiness of the throne room to the three shadow thugs that had returned from Earth, "You three had the perfect chance to kidnap the hybrid and you miserably missed it!".  
"B-but we heard a voice", tried to defend one of the three, "We thought that someone was coming and we left in order to avoid to be seen".  
"You worthless spits of a shadow!", shouted again the commander with even more fury, "You ran away only because of a stupid voice! I am so ashamed of your incompetence that I want to extinguish the flames of my eyes rather than looking at you!".  
"Don't be so mad at them, Ombrion", said the voice from the throne, "They were right to escape from that risky situation; about the hybrid, we have another surprise for him and not only that".  
Ombrion turned his attention to the throne, "What would that be, My Lord?".  
"We will unleash a double attack: while these three soldiers will try to kidnap the son of Pink Diamond, and this time they'd better not fail, you will lead an assault team on Homeworld and take the Diamonds hostage; if everything will go as planned, we will act out the main part of our plan without troubles, but if even a single thing goes wrong because of you...", the menace was left floating in mid air.  
"I assure you, My Lord, that everything will go as planned", replied Ombrion, before yelling to the three thugs to go and leaving the room shortly after.  
The voice stayed quiet for some time, before starting to laugh evilly again, "This is going to be the first strike to the Diamonds...And the first step to their annihilation!".

**A.N; Okay, so here we are at the end of chapter two, which concludes with the revelation of our hero! The next chapter will be a more relaxing one, but don't make any quick ideas, because it could also include a little twist straight of my creation.  
Now, about the fact that I made our hero use the Batmobile from Batman Forever, or Kilmer mobile, (instead of the one from the Tim Burton movies, although I made a reference about it into the chapter), there are two good reasons for it: the first one is that even though it's not as cool as the Keaton mobile and it appears more exaggerated with all those neon lights, it has its own charm and style.  
The second reason is a personal one: I am one of those guys that considers BF an underrated movie, despite being more campy and cheesier thant its predecessors (Kilmer wasn't bad as Batman and if only they hadn't cut a great part of the scenes before releasing it, it could have been better), so this chapter was kinda of a little tribute to it (there will be other easter eggs like this in the next chapters).  
Said this, see you all to the next chapter, bye bye!  
Jack8090**


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next day, after breakfast, Steven, Connie, Greg and the gems went out of Beach City, heading to the address that Jack had given them the last night, leaving Lion guarding the house .  
"So, according to the navigator, the house of Jack should be right after the next curves", told Greg to the group, as they were reaching out their destination.  
"Do you have any ideas on how your friend Jack's house will look like when we arrive, Steven?", asked Lapis to Steven.  
"Frankly, no; the only way to find out is to get there first and see with our eyes what it looks like", answered the boy.  
"Okay, time for the big revelation!" l, announced the driver, "The house is right after this, OH MY GOSH!", he exclaimed, as the building they were looking for revealed to them.  
It was a big mansion, with an 800 style look, located nearby the cliff with a big black iron gate and what it appeared to be a second entrance underneath a small hill; the batmobile that Jack had used last night was parked near the front porch.  
"Yep, that's definitely his house", affirmed Amethyst.  
When the van arrived at the entrance of the big gate, Greg noticed an intercom on the left side of it and pressed the button on the front face.  
"How can I help you?", asked a British voice a few seconds later.  
"Uhm, hello and sorry for the disturb", answered Greg a little bit embarrassed, "My name is Greg Universe and I'm the father of Steven universe, the friend of Jack Stevenson".  
"Ah, of course; Master Jack informed me that we would have had guests for this day", answered back the voice, "Now, could you please give me a few seconds while I open up the gate for you?".  
A few moments later, the gate opened up automatically, allowing Greg to drive into the path that led to the entrance of the house; once parked, they got out of the vehicle and walked to the door.  
Before they could even knock at it, anyway, someone else opened it up to them: it was a man who looked to be about 50 years old and was wearing an old fashioned smoking.  
"I suppose that you're Master Jack's guests; I'm his butler and formal tutor, Alfred Pinewood and I welcome you to our mansion", said the man, "If you would like to follow me, I will lead you to the living room, while waiting for him to come down, due to the fact that he has awakened a little late this morning and he's still dressing up".  
"Why has he woke up later than he normally does?", asked Connie, while she entered in the house with the others.  
"Unfortunately, even though Master Jack is in vacation, his work is still very pressing and last night he's been forced to complete various tasks that had been sent to him by his associate Lucius Fawcett, a business man close to him, who's currently managing his parent's business during his *ahem* temporary absence", explained the butler, while leading them into a room that was occupied by a large wooden steps that lead to the superior floor, with a metallic pole on the right side, that was linked to somewhere by a hole in the ceiling, "As he may have probably told you, running a billionaire business is very affatiguing, so he can't always be able to sustain all the efforts that are required".  
"Yeah, he mentioned that last night", said Steven.  
"Master Jack!", announced the butler, directing his voice to the upper floor, "Your guests have arrived!".  
"I'm coming immediately!", replied Jack's voice somewhere; a few moments later, Jack descended down the pole, surprising everyone, "Steven! I'm glad that you and the others could come here".  
This time he was wearing a magenta polo, with shorts and a pair of sportive shoes, giving him an appearance of a normal boy, instead of a guy who runned a billionaire business.  
"A very theatrical and stylish entrance, sir", commented Alfred, "I must say, I haven't seen you using the pole for ages".  
"That thing is quicker than the elevator in our appartment in New York", replied Jack, returning his attention to Steven and the others, "So, I guess Alfred was about to take you to the living room, right? In this case, It's better if we show you the entire house; do you want to have the honor, Alfred?".  
"It will certantly be a plesaure", answered the butler, "If you'd like to follow me, I'll show you the rest of the house".  
The room where they entered was a vast place, which was decorated and furnished with various things: a biliard table, leather coaches, a 4k HD television with a dozen of consoles both old and new connected to it and various shelves that were full of videogames, books and DVD cases.  
"Well, we can safely say that you know how to treat yourself", commented Garnet, impressed as the others.  
"Yeah, but the downside of all of this is that is kinda boring having all of this stuff and no one around to enjoy with it", replied Jack, "What do you say if we watched a movie after the inspection of the house?".  
"What kinda of movie?" "I'll let you decide, since you are my guests for the day; I have various movies into those shelves, the selection is so vast that I can't rember precisely how many of them there are", said Jack, as they walked through the room until another door, "The next one is the dining room and I warn you; It's superb".  
The next room was as large as the other one, but in complete oposite of furniture, since it had an appearance that reflected the external look of the mansion: the walls were white ivory colured, the ceiling had a crystal chandelier, the floor was in wood, a fireplace was situated on the left wing, while a vast wooden table occupied the central part of the place; there were also French windows that connected the room to a courtyard, which was decorated with white tables and chairs and had a pool, which was dried up.  
"Why is the pool dried? It's a bit of a waste with a summer day like this", commented Amethyst.  
"It kinda is, but since we have the sea nearby, It's not a big deal to keep the pool dried up", answered Jack, "But we'll do fill it up for the pool party that we'll set for my birthday".  
"When is your birthday?", asked Steven.  
"Master Jack was born on the 15th of this month, which will be in about two weeks", said Alfred.  
"Really? That's Steven's birthday too!", said Pearl.  
"Well, this changes everything!", exclaimed Jack, "It means that we can celebrate both of our birthday in my house by having a big pool party all together; by the way, how old are you gonna be Steven?".  
"Seventeen", said the young hybrid, "What about you? How old are tou gonna be?".  
"Twenty three", replied the other, turning his attention back to Alfred, "Alfred, while I show them the rest of the house, would you mind preparing something of quick for lunch? A couple of sandwiches will do the thing".  
"Of course sir; If you need anything, you can find me in the kitchen", answered the butler, before walking away and exit from the room by using another door; Jack then returned his attention to the others, "Well, while Alfred prepares something, I'd like to show you something of which I'm kinda proud".  
"What is it?", asked Amethyst.  
"You'll see", replied the young man with a little grin.

When Jack and the others returned on the outside, he told them to follow him by car, as he jumped into his Batmobile and drove it around the mansion's perimetre, followed at short distance by the others on Greg's van; he lead them to a path that verged on the cliff, before leading to what it appeared to be a cave carved into the cliff's rock.  
"Is this some kind of secret refuge of yours?", asked Peridot once they got inside of it, "It sure is dark in here".  
"It's not a secret refuge, but it contains something that I'm wishing to keep in as a secret", replied Jack, as he turned on a switch on one of the walls; immediately, the place was enlightened by powerful neon lights, revealing various vehicles that looked expensive, "Here's my family's garage, with the most amazing, in my opinion, collection of this state; my dad loved to collect cars, besides the irony of the fact that he had created one of the most powerful and profitable technological industries of the USA and that he could have produced them by himself, and I carried on his hobby by adding some other jewels of my own, like the Batmobile from Batman Forever, as well".  
The carage's content amazed everyone: the entire place contained a vast array of cars, each one different from the other, but all of them looked expensive and powerful too.  
"My dad used to collect cars of new generation, like that Ferrari over there", he explained, pointing a red car with the logo of a horse on the front, "But he did not exclude some old fashioned one, like the old Ford; as with me, I prefer to collect famous vehicles from movies, like the Batmobile from Batman Forever or the motorbike that I used yesterday morning for arrive at Beach City, which itself was used on the set of Terminator 2".  
"No way!", exclaimed Greg, seeing one vehicle parked on the left side of the garage a few meters away, "Is that the 66s Batmobile?".  
"Yep, in all its glory", confirmed Jack, "Me and dad were both fans of the telefilm with Adam West and we couldn't resist at the possibility of getting a replica of the Batmobile; speaking of that, my favorite of all is the one used by Michael Keaton, which is parked over there", he added, pointing a black car not far from the Ferrari.  
"How come you can afford all of this things?", asked Bismuth.  
"All of this is possible only thanks to my dad's business and Lucius's partnership", explained Jack, "Since the technological industry is always searching for the best products of new generation, that's where the Star Technology corporation is strong: products of pure quality and of latest model.  
Lucius on the other hand plays the part of some kind of king Midas: wherever he puts his hands onto the actions of my industry, those instantly become the most popular and profitable at Wall Street, providing a huge amount of earnings".  
"So, you practically don't have to do anything about it", deduced Amethyst, "You just stay in your office and gain over the work of your dependents".  
"Amethyst!", warned her Pearl with an advisory tone.  
"Well, yes and no", replied Jack, "I do earn more than everyone at the industry, but that doesn't mean that I don't have to do anything; for example, I always have to double check all the actions and the investments of the corporation, in order to avoid great losses of money and as the head leader of everything, I follow a restricted and severe program in order to stay on the top of the production chain; last but not least, there's also the public image, which can become a mortal enemy even at the single mistake that I could accidentally make".  
"Oh", mourned the purple gem at that answer, "So, life is never an easy thing for you, is it?".  
"Exactly", confirmed Jack, "That's the reason why I decided to disappear for a while and ask Lucius to cover my little absence; being me is not what I could call an easy experience, but", he shrugged his shoulders, "It's my life and unfortunately I can't do much about it".  
The tone of voice that he used to describe it reminded to Steven somehow about his mother: she, just like Jack, had a stressful life and she tried to rebel against it with disastrous results.  
Steven thought that maybe Jack could have ended up like her if he would have persisted with those escapes.  
"Anyway", said Jack, breaking the embarrassing silence that he had accidentally created, "After this little visit to my collection, why don't we go back to the house to eat something?".  
"Sure", agreed Steven, as he followed up with the others Jack out of the garage and up to the path that lead to his mansion.

For the rest of the day, Jack and the others spent time by doing various activities that the young bilionaire's mansion allowed it: they played some videogames, watched a couple of action movies chosen by Greg (who surpisingly discovered that Jack was a fan of Inspector Callahan and Schwarzenegger), challenged each others to a car race (Jack on the Tim Burton Batmobile againts Greg and Steven on the '66 mobile) and even tried to prepare some cookies for tea time (almost burning down the kitchen in progress, if it wasn't for Alfred's tempestive intervention, but managing anyway to make a good dose of not-burned cookies).  
After dinner that evening, they spent a couple of hours talking about each other's life and Alfred in particular was very talkative about narrating some of Jack's life earliest moments.  
"And so that day was the first, and also last time, in which I gave riding lessons to young Master Jack", he narrated, almost surrounded by a nostalgic aura, "Will you ask me the result? It was a really bad idea; a few seconds after being mounted on, the horse unseated both me and the young man here present, making us fall in the quagmire.  
I think that it happened at least six or seven times; at the end of the day we were both covered in mud, I was worse off because I had a splinted ankle, but despite our common problems, we were both happy as never before", he concluded, amoung everyone's laughter, included Jack's one.  
"Well, I think I have made him uncomfortable enough", he deduced, while getting up from his chair, "Have a nice evening and don't worry about the dishes, I'll clean them up tomorrow morning; good night, sir", he saluted, before leaving the dining room.  
"He's incredible", said Connie to Jack, "Alfred is so kind, considerate and...I don't have other words to describe him".  
"Yes, I know, Alfred is a great one", replied Jack with a smile, "Without him, I couldn't find a pair of underwear or to orient myself in this labyrinthine mansion if it wasn't for him".  
"He almost behaves like some kind of grandfather that keeps looking after you in an affective way", added Steven.  
At that comment, Jack face frozen almost instantly, "Well, Alfred is kinda like a parent to me", answered Jack with a differerent tone of voice, "In fact...Alfred is my family".  
"What do you..?", before finishing that question, a single look straight into Jack's eyes clarified things ten times better than using words, "Oh...I understand".  
"Yeah, well let's say that life hasn't been all that bad to me up to this point", he replied, "It's just that at one point in my life...Everything changed so quickly that I found myself catapulted into a completely different world before I even knew", but before he could continue, the pendulum clock that was located nearby the fireplace started to ring, drawing his attention, "Wow, It's 23 already? Man, time really flies away when you don't mind to it".  
"In that case, we better go back to Beach City before it gets even darker", commented Greg, getting up with the others, "Jack, it has been a plesaure to spend the day with you".  
"The plesaure has been mine", he replied, while he shook hands with Greg, "You can come back here anytime you want, me and Alfred will always be happy to have you as guests".  
After leading them to the door, Jack waved goodbye to them, while watching their van getting out of the gate and taking the main road to Beach City; after what he felt to be like an eternity, but in reality was just some handful of minutes, he returned inside the house, where Alfred was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the upper floor.  
"You seem happy, sir", observed the butler, "It almost seems like the presnece of your new friend and his family had a therapeutic effect on yourself and on the house".  
"Alfred, if you like so much having them around, why don't you ask them to move here? After all, we have plenty of empty rooms on the upper floor", replied Jack in a sarcastic way.  
"That's not what I have in mind", he answered, "But you cannot deny what I have said though".  
"Yeah, you're right", said Jack, "By the way, is there something that I should be informed about?".  
"I'm afraid there is", replied the butler, "Your device in your hideout has detected two anomalies: one of them has been detected in a location out of this world, while the other is heading towards Beach City".  
"Say what?!", exclaimed Jack surprised, "Why didn't you tell me anything about?!".  
"Unfortunately it happened while you were saying goodbye to your friends and I didn't want to bother you", said Alfred.  
"They must be looking for Steven and the Diamonds, I know they are", said the young man, while quickly going upstairs, "Get the car and my weapons set, while I prepare myself for this night".  
"As you wish, sir", he replied the butler, as he left the room with the same speed of his master.

**A.N; Okay everyone, chapter 3 is done; I'm sorry for the late delay, but unfortunately I've been kinda busy in the last few days and I had to apply all my energies onto my personal things.  
Yes, I'm aware of the fact that SUF will soon premiere, signing the airing of new episodes and it kinda screws up my plans, because I originally wanted to finish this fiction before the show could air on again; however, it's more reasonable to keep it going, instead of stopping and doing it all over again.  
Also, since the website doesn't allow me to add a third category to the fanfiction, I'm forced to split this story into 3 pieces, this of course when I'll arrive to a new narrative arc after finishing this.  
****See you all to the next chapter!  
Jack8090**


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After returning Bismuth, Lapis and Peridot to Little Homeworld and Connie to her parent's house, Greg accompanied Steven and the other gems to the temple, before returning to the town.  
"Well, it has been fun spending some time with Jack and his butler at their mansion", said Steven once they got inside the house.  
"Yeah, it was fun and everything, but it has been exhausting", commented Amethyst, while stretching, "Now, if there's something that we all deserve is a good old sleep, before the day of tomorrow".  
"Now that you mention it, I think you are right", added Pearl, "After all, tomorrow both me and Garnet will have to lead an important geminary at Little Homeschool".  
"Alright girls, see you tomorrow", said Steven as he walked upstairs to his room, "Goodnight!".  
"Goodnight, Steven", replied Garnet to him.  
When Steven got upstairs, after putting up his pajama and brushing his teeth, he went to bed; but after five minutes of staying under the blankets, the feelings of that day still tormented him so much that he decided to take a breath of nocturnal sea breeze before going back to sleep.  
When he got out on the balcony, the sky was full of beautiful stars that shine brightful.  
The sea completed that scenario with the soft sound of the delicated waves slowly crushing on the shore, creating a calm atmosphere.  
Steven felt pleased by that environment that surrounded him, when suddenly he perceived something wrong in the air, as if like a mysterious presence had come into the place and altered the atmosphere.  
"Uuuuuuniverrrsssee", Steven felt chills down his spine as he heard a deep voice calling for him, the same type of voice that he had perceived the last night before going to the car race.  
Slowly, he turned his head around and with terror in his mind saw three figures that seemed to be made out of shadows with luminescent eyes perched on the top of the glass roof, that were looking straight at him; before he could move a muscle, those shadow like creatures bolted towards him at an astonishing speed.  
Steven screamed in fear and raised his arms, preparing for the impact... But the hit never came.  
Instead, one millisecond before those beings could have touched him, something big, black and cloaked, plated those things and pushed them along with itself down on the beach.  
Steven just stayed where he was as he looked astonished the scene that was happening down there; the figure that had plated the shadow beings had a cape with pointy ears, his body was covered by a black costume with a yellow oval on the chest that represented a bat and a long cloak that extended down to his boots.  
"This can't be!", thought the hybrid, recognizing the figure.  
"What kind of human is this?", asked one of the shadows to the others.  
"Who cares!", shouted another one that had lost the patience, "Let's finish him and then let's take the hybrid!", after saying that, it charged straight at the cloaked guy, who however blocked its first punch, then stroke the creature in the abdomen with a knee hit and threw it away from him on the rocks nearby.  
When the second one tried to repeat the same thing of its companion, the figure threw something of small and metallic at him that pierced in the middle of its chest, making it dissolve into a dark mist.  
The third one, realizing that the situation had changed for the worst, tried to escape by flying into the air, but Steven's mysterious defender pulled out a strange tool, which shot at it a metallic cable that caught the creature at mid air and made it fall on the sand.  
The shadow being tried to free itself from the cable, but it was useless, as the figure pulled the cable and immobilized it, before grabbing it by the shoulders and lifting it up.  
"N-no, please don't kill me!", pleaded the being, "I'll do anything you want, but I beg you, don't kill me!".  
"I'm not going to kill you, but I want you to make me a favor", replied the mysterious guy with a deep voice that strangely sounded familiar to Steven, "I want you to get the hell out of here with your companion and don't bother that boy anymore; I also want you to tell all your friends about me".  
"Who are you?", asked the being still terrorized.  
The cloaked guy pulled him closer to his masked face, "I'm Batman", he answered, before throwing it away and watching it grabbing the other shadow being, then flying away in the darkness of the night; Batman then turned his attention to Steven, "Are you okay?".  
"Y-yeah, I am", said the boy, still shocked by what had just happened in front of him, when a few moments later Pearl's voice called him from the inside.  
"No other of those beings will bother you this night, I promise you this", said Batman, "But now I've got to go".  
"Where do you have to go?", asked Steven worriedly.  
"I've got to protect the Diamonds now", replied the other, "Those creatures in this moment are after them; I must leave to prevent it from happening".  
Before Steven could ask further questions, the door of his balcony opened and Pearl rushed out of it, "Steven! Oh, thank goodness you're okay!", exclaimed the white gem with relief, while hugging him, "We heard you screaming while we were in our rooms and we rushed out as fast as we could; Are you okay?".  
"Yes Pearl, I'm okay", he answered, looking back at the point where Batman was standing a few seconds ago, now empty; after a minute of silence, while reasoning on the hero's words, he said, "Pearl listen, I need to call the Diamonds immediately".  
"Wait, why would you need to do that?", asked Pearl perplexed.  
"I'll explain it later, now I must call them!", he explained, rushing inside the house.  
"Steven, wait! I don't think that this will be a good idea, they might be sleeping!", tried to convince him Pearl, while following the boy.

Meanwhile, on the top of the lighthouse, Batman had observed all the scene and was about to plan his next move.  
"Anything new, Alfred?", asked him to a communicator in the left arm of his costume.  
"I'm still tracking the other signal, sir", replied the butler, "When I'll have the coordinates, I'll send them to you as soon as possible; by the way, I might as well compliment with you for the performance".  
"This is not a show, Alfred, this is real life", countered the other, before receiving a couple of data from the interface of the mini computer on his armor's right arm, "Your coordinates have arrived, Master Jack".  
"Thank you for the help, Alfred", he said, ending the communication and pulling out another object from his belt; it looked like a small metallic cylinder, with a blue brilliant connected by metallic appendices to one of the extremities.  
"I hope this thing Lucius has projected works", he mourned, while inserting the data that Alfred had sent to him, "Or else it all fails".  
After inserting the coordinates and pressing a small button on the cylinder's body, a circular warp appeared in front of him, distorting the space that surrounded it.  
"Here goes nothing", he said to himself, as he walked through the wormhole and vanquished along with it.

Jasper was standing on the border of one of the Space Zoo, contempling the vastity of the space that surrounded it; the orange gem however, was still being tormented by the events that had happened after she had left Earth.  
After being healed and informed about the real identity of Rose, Jasper couldn't accept the truth and had run away from everything and everyone, hiding herself into the Beta Kindergarten, where she spent months unleashing her rage and pain on everything that she came in contact with.  
Only when Steven came, along with Amethyst, things started to change again, for better or for worse.

_Jasper was heavily painting, after being defeated for the third-fourth time by Smoky Quartz, who unfused into Steven and Amethyst when she realized that the Quartz soldier was unable to continue the fight.  
"You can beat me as many times as you want, Steven", spat to him the Quartz, "But you're not my Diamond; you have no power on me and you'll never convince me to join your side!".  
Steven sighed after that answer and took a deep breath before starting to talk again, "Jasper, I know everything is now different to you, but you've got to accept the reality; you can't just stay here and consume yourself by giving credit to your rage, you need help".  
Jasper looked with contempt to the hybrid, "Help?! Your "mother" was the gem to which I've dedicated my entire existance and was also the same gem that betrayed me and destroyed the purpose that I had since the day I emerged from the surface of this useless planet! Tell me why should I accept help from the son of the one that ruined what I am!?".  
"Probably because you're not the only one, duh!", blurted Amethyst, who had not spoken until that moment.  
"Shut up, you runt!", said Jasper, "This is not your business! Even to this day, I still can't believe that my Diamond preferred a waste like you, in comparison to", Jasper never finished that sentence, as Amethyst charged striaght at her and plated her, grabbing her by the scruff of her suit and pulling her face to face; but when their faces were close to each other, the orange gem noticed that the other was about to cry.  
"You think I was luckier than you?!", she said, her voice trembling with emotion, "Rose always considered me as special and that was a thing I was proud to be; but when you came here on Earth the first time, after I discovered what a normal Quartz soldier should look like, being called a runt and discover that Rose's words were as fake as her...There are many people and gems that she has ruined on her way and you're not the only one!".  
The words of the purple gem stroke Jasper in the deepest of her consciousness, making her forget completely about her rage againts Steven and his mother.  
"Amethyst is right, Jasper", added Steven, after separating the two gems, "Even though now everything is over, we still have a lot of things to fix, and you're not the only one of those".  
After a minute of silence, Jasper finally decided to talk again, "Then what should I do?"  
"I know some friends that could help you out", replied the boy, "but you'll have to trust me for once".  
The Quartz looked at him with an hesitant expression, before finally giving her answer back, "Alright, Steven; what is it going to be?"  
_

After that day, Steven sent her for some time with the Famethyst, believing that their company would've helped the Quartz one way or another; of course, things were akward at the beginning, due to Jasper's aggessive temper which contrasted violently with those of the other gems.  
By the time passed anyway, things between Jasper and the others started to rebalance, as the Ultimate Quartz started to hang out sometime with the Quartzes, slowly starting to understand the motivations that had brought her Diamond to start the Rebellion; still, she wasn't sure if it was the time to come back to Earth to make amends with Steven and the others, especially Amethyst and Lapis, which were the two gems that she felt she had hurt more than any other.  
While she observed the panorama, she saw something that caught her attention moving in one of the alleys: it looked like a mist made out of shadows, which was floating in mid air.  
Despite the weirdness of that thing, Jasper decided to follow it and almost as if the mist had felt her presence, it began to float away, gaining speed into the process.

When she turned in one of the alley where the mist had gone, Jasper was violently grabbed by something and knocked out unconscious.  
A few minutes later, when she recovered from the hit, she found herself tied up with black chains; she tried to get rid of those things, but they seemed to become sturdier and tighter the more she attempted to free from them.  
"I don't think so", said a slick voice over her shoulders, "It's useless to fight; the more you try, the harder they get".  
The orange gem turned around and saw a humanoid figure that looked like made out of shadows, with a dark grey armor and flaming eyes where normally eyes should have been.  
"Who are you?", asked the gem aggressively.  
"This is not your concern", replied the being with the same voice as before, turning then his attention to two other shadow beings near him, "Put this Quartz with the other ones".  
The two soldiers grabbed Jasper and dragged her towards the corridor; despite the efforts of the gem to free herself, the chains complicated the job as they got harder and tighter the more she tried.  
When they arrived at the door of the ex-Zoomans area and opened door and opened it, Jasper was rudely thrown in the inside.  
"Jasper!", the quartz warrior attention was caught by a variety of voices that called out for her name; a few seconds later, she was freed from the chains by the other Quartzes that had come to her, "Are you hurt?".  
"I'm fine", replied the soldier, while getting up on her feet, "You fell for that mist trick too, did you?".  
"Yeah, we all did", confirmed Carnelian, "Agatha is trying to maintain the order with the Zoomans, but things are not going too well back here".  
"Well, maybe they will get better, once I take down the door and get us out of here", replied her, summoning her helmet.  
"Don't you think that we've tried to take the door down? It's hard as hell!", said one of the Amethysts, "It's impossible to take them down".  
"Not on my watch!", she replied, charging the door with all her strength; the impact made the entire wall shaking, but the door stood still, remaining intact as if nothing had hit it.  
"See?", said Skinny desolate, "There's no way to get rid of the door".  
Jasper growled with frustration and made her helmet disappear, "What shall we do then? We can't stay here and do nothing!".  
"Unfortunately, unless a miracle happens, we're screwed", answered Carnelian.

Meanwhile, the warriors that were guarding the entrance, started to talk to each other, killing the time while waiting for Ombrion to come back.  
"It has been all too easy", commented one of the seven shadow soldiers at the door, "With that trick of the shadow mist, we have managed to capture every of those gems and humans without any resistance, even that bulky Jasper".  
"So the last one was supposed to be the ultimate quartz? I'm not impressed at all now that I've seen it live", said one to the others.  
"Ombrion was right when he said that they've got weaker by the time", added another one, "Speaking of him, why didn't he brought all of us to take on the Diamonds and instead he left us to guard this prisoners? They can't escape from the oasis, the door is harder than the titanium".  
"Maybe he wants to be sure that he won't have any problems with his task", suggested another one, "Besides, he brought with him ten of us seventeen, so I think that he won't have any trouble with catching the Diamonds, without counting with the protection that Darkus granted him; this mission will be the easiest thing that he will have ever done".  
"Speaking of his mission, how bad you think the Diamonds will react once Ombrion has told them that Darkus is about to be resurrected?", demanded another shadow warrior to change the subject.  
"Not as much as when he tells them that our spies on Earth have kidnapped the precious son of their beloved and lost Pink Diamond!", answered another one with a scornful tone, making everyone laugh about it, "That would be the height".  
"I bet that super emotional of Blue Diamond will pass out a few seconds after hearing of it!", said another one, "She has always been the weakest!".  
"Naaah, I think not", replied the one that had talked with a scornful tone before, "I think that she will scream in panic like a...", the phrase never came to its conclusion, as a steel cable that came out of now nowhere tied up the warrior at the speed of a snake and then stretched itself, dragging away the shadow creature, who screamed in pure terror by that unexpected attact, before disappearing into a corridor nearby.  
After a few moments of awkward silence, following that strange event that had happened in front of their eyes, one of the soldiers recovered from the shock and shouted to four of the group, "Well, what are you waiting for? Go there and search for him!".  
The four of them cautiously advanced in the corridor, still hesitant for the slight fear of being attacked by the same steel cable that had dragged away their companion; after a couple of minutes of advancing, they arrived in a large room that forked itself into various alleyways.  
"What do you think was that?", asked one of the four.  
"Maybe it was some kind of defective trap that it might have accidentally activated", supposed a second one.  
"There are no traps or security measures in this place, you blockheads!", said the third one, "I think that there's probably one last guard in this place that we might have not seen when we arrived and that it probably is still free somewhere here".  
In that precise moment, all the entrances around them closed suddenly at the same time, as if someone had pressed a switch to activate them.  
"Someone has closed us inside!", exclaimed the fourth warrior, "We're trapped!".  
"Uhm, guys?", said one of them pointing at some point on the ceiling; everyone looked in that direction and saw something of black pierced upside down that was looking at them with a pair of shimmering eyes.  
A few seconds later, that thing dropped some metallic spheres that once they touched the ground, they started emitting a dense smoke that soon prevented the warriors from seeing each other; shortly after, that black being dropped off into the smoke, gliding onto them thanks to his cloak.

"Why do they take so long to come back?", asked nervously the soldier on the right to the other one after half an hour of waiting, "This waiting is freaking me out!".  
"Argh, for the sake of our Lord, could you please stop acting like a coward?", replied the other one, annoyed by his behavior, "They should be here in no time; you're just worrying unnecessa", without notice, something of small and metallic went to stick in the middle of his throat, cutting off from him both the voice and the life.  
The other soldier screamed in terror, panicked by that silent death in front of his eyes, and without any advise, a great portion of the wall near the door that they were guarding suddendly crumbled, revealing Jasper and the other Quartzes with their weapons.  
"At last this thing has finally fallen", commented Jasper, "Is everyone okay?".  
"Yeah, we're all fine", said one of the Rose Quartzes, while recovering from the impact.  
"Stop right there, you gem scum!", told them the shadow warrior, brandishing againts them a strange weapon that he took from his belt: it looked like a long black stick, with a claw-like extremity that emanated miniscule bolts of dark energy, "Don't force me to use this thing; because I warn you, this is no normal Gem Destabilizer, but a new weapon created to completely annihilate you in one hit! Just dare to make even one step further from where you are and you'll get blasted by this weapon's power! And once you are hit by this instrument, not only your phisical form, but also your gemstones, will turn into ashes and you'll be wiped out from the face of the universe once and for all!", he had not yet finished speaking, that another one of those small and metallic objects came straight to the weapon he was holding, shattering the point that was emanating energy and sending various shards of the object on the floor.  
"Whoa! What the heck was that?", exclaimed one of the Amethysts, surprised as the other gems.  
"I've had enough!", shouted exasperated the shadow warrior, looking in all the directions, trying to find the mysterious owner of those metallic flying dards, "What the hell are you?! SHOW YOURSELF!".  
In that moment, a huge shadow appeared over him and something of big and black dropped from the ceiling and crashed at him; a few instants later, two strong arms picked him up and pulled him face to face with the mysterious being to which they belonged: it was a figure with a black suit and cloak, a pointy cape and a yellow oval on the chest that represented a black creature with wings, "I'm Batman!".  
Before he had the chance to react, Batman knocked him down with a single and ponderous headbutt; then, the hero turned his attention to the gems, who were looking at him stunned.  
"I guess...That we should thank you", muttered Jasper, who was the first to recover from that surprise.  
"You don't have to thank me", replied Batman with a firm tone, "Give the alarm; I'll take care of the others" and with that, he dropped another smoke bomb and vaniqueshed again when the smoke dissipated, along with the knocked out shadow soldier.  
"Do you think that this "Batman guy" is on our side?", asked hesitant Skinny.  
"Whether or not is on our side, let's just go and warn the Diamonds of the danger!", replied Jasper, rushing out of the hole in the wall, followed at short distance by the others, "If he's gonna take on the others, perphaps he will manage to gain time in order to allow us to act; otherwise, we will have to deal with them by ourselves, no matter how!".

**A.N; Aaaaannnd, here we are, folks! Batman has finally dropped into the story with a double entrance! I know that things with Jasper are still on the edge in the series, but I wanted her to be an active character in my fiction, so here she is, along with the Famethyst for support!  
Now that the holiday season is here, the producton will get a little boost thanks to the festivity period; said this, expect new chapters coming along to keep the hype stable.  
See you next chapter,  
Jack8090**


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"So, you mean that all of this stuff was hers?", asked Spinel, while looking amazed at the room where once the Rose Quartzes were bubbled.  
"Well, actually both me and Blue built this place and took care of it for a while", explained Yellow, "But yes, all of this was hers once".  
"Blue, is there something wrong?", asked White to the other matriarch, who was looking at a mural that represented Pink Diamond.  
When the blue gem turned her attention back to them, she had some light tears near her eyes, as if she was about to cry, "Yes White, I'm perfectly fine, you don't need to worry about me".  
"Blue, you don't look fine at all; just tell us what's wrong with you", insisted Yellow, knowing very well the upsets of her fellow.  
Blue took a deep breath before answering, "I-it's nothing, you don't have to worry about me, but the fact is that I miss her so much; I know that she's gone, but the truth is that I can't stand the fact that we'll never see her again".  
White sighed after that answer and put her hands on the shoulders of the other matriarch, "Blue, you're not the only one who is missing Pink; we all miss her, but now she's gone and we have to move on; I know it's hard, but you need to remind that we have Steven and Spinel with us, and both of them represent all the aspects of Pink that made us happy".  
"Speaking of Steven, isn't his tradition that Earthlings call "birthday", were humans celebrate the day of their birth with gifts, going to be in about a couple of weeks?", asked Spinel.  
"You're right about it, Spinel", answered White, before gasping a few instants later, "And now that you mention it, we still have to get a present for Steven!".  
"Don't worry about it, White", tranquilized her Yellow, "We'll come up with some ideas".  
In that moment, the communicator in the room started beeping, signaling an incoming call from Earth.  
"It's Steven", said Blue perplexed, "Why is he calling us? He should be sleeping at this time".  
"There's only one way to find out", added Yellow, answering to the call.  
Immediately, Steven's worried image filled the screen, "Yellow, Blue, White! Thank goodness that you answered to this call!".  
"Steven, what is the reason for this late call?", asked White slightly worried, "Is there something that you need to tell us?".  
"I know that it may sound strange what I'm about to tell you, but I've been", in that moment, the screen started fuzzing, making difficult to hear what he was saying, "Att...shad...creat...kidna", suddenly after that, the communication was shut down.  
"What is wrong with this piece of junk?!", shouted Yellow angrily, "It was working normally before, why did it stop?".  
"Because I interrupted it", said a slick voice that was coming from one of the columns nearby, "Despite how lovable this thing is, I'm afraid that I'll have to stop it for a while".  
"Who are you? Show yourself!", alerted him Blue Diamond.  
Slowly, a figure whose body looked like being made out of shadows and wearing a dark armor, emerged from the back of the column, "Long time no see, Diamonds".  
"Ombrion!", exclaimed surprised White, "But that's impossible... You're supposed to be...".  
"Dead? Annihilated by an army of Quartzes? I think not", he replied, while admiring the room, "What a nice place, isn't it? I suppose that you have continued to expand your empire".  
"We've stopped conquering foreign worlds, we're in peace now!", said back Yellow, while lifting her arm along with Blue and White, "And you're not welcome here", she added, before shooting with the other two towards Ombrion a colored ray that should have destroyed him; before the beam could have hit him though, a barrier of dark energy appeared between the soldier and the shot, absorbing all the energy and dissipating it.  
"Impossible! How could this be?", exclaimed Blue, as shocked as the other two.  
"Fascinating, isn't it?", he said, while waving his hand and nullifying the barrier, "Unfortunately for you, I've been granted with a protection that nullifies all your powers", while he was talking, ten more shadow soldiers emerged from other parts of the room, "Oh by the way, this protection affects also my thugs, so don't bother to attack them".  
"What do you want to do?", asked White, trying to maintain a solid position.  
"Mmmh, in all sincerity I have no idea about it", he said carelessly, "I was thinking of shattering you and all the gems in this useless place, while also killing those humans you have here, in order to make you feel the pain that you inflicted to Darkus... But I have another plan to follow: I'll take your gems with me and then offer them to my Lord".  
"Are you crazy or something?!", asked shocked Blue.  
"I think not", answered him calmly, "Speaking of Darkus, do you really thought that he would have stayed destroyed forever? He's been alive for all this time, plotting his great return to destroy the universe; the earthquake on that colony was just a warning that he sent with all his homages to you and your precious empire.  
We could have even had the kidnapping of the son of your dearly lost Pink tonight", at this mention, all four gems began to sweat cold, "But unfortunately, thanks to the intervention of an unknown human that my thugs said he called himself "Batman", that move was nullified; but don't worry about it, we still have plenty of entertainment tonight, thanks to the help of my thugs and Darkus's powers that I possess".  
"You won't be taking no one of my friends!", shouted Spinel, raising her rubber fists and surprising everyone in the room, "Not as long as I'll be in this room!".  
"Well well well, what do we have here?", asked with interest Ombrion, while examining from head to toe the pink gem, "What are you supposed to be, some kind of court's jester? Or maybe some kind of old servant of the so beloved and loved Pink diamond?", after that answer, Ombrion found himself flying towards a column because of Spinel's punch, before landing violently on the floor.  
"The second one was half right", replied to him the gem annoyed.  
Ombrion, despite the fact that the violence of the impact should have left him hurt, got back on his feet as if nothing had happened; then he sent a enraged look to Spinel, before pulling out a Gem Destructor, "So it looks like we have a tough gem here, but this is fine for me; I always loved the tough challenges".  
"Then you'll be mad for me", added someone behind his back; when he turned around to see who said that, Ombrion took a direct punch to his face and was thrown right back to his soldiers.  
"Who the hell is that?!", asked shocked one of the soldiers, seeing the figure dressed in black that had attacked Ombrion.  
"I know who it is, it's the human that screwed our kidnapping plan, Batman!", said furiously Ombrion, while getting up on his feet again, "What are you waiting for, you idiots?! Kill that black mood breaker before he stops us again!".  
Two of the group charged straight at the caped crusader, convinced that they could have taken him down easily with just a few punches; unfortunately for them, Batman easily blocked their charge by grabbing them by the throat and when a third one charged straight at him, he smashed onto that one the two soldiers they he was holding.  
A fourth soldier picked up his Gem Destructor and started to do a few tricks with it, stupidly thinking that he would have intimidated his opponent.  
"Oh, for the love of", muttered Batman while rolling his eyes, before launching straight to him a Batarang right in the middle of his eyes and dissolving him into a mist of shadows; suddenly, he heard a scream behind him and when he turned around, he saw that another one of the thugs had taken Spinel as a hostage by blocking her and holding a black knife on her gem.  
"Do even a single thing and her gem will be shattered in no time", warned the soldier.  
Before he could have blinked his eyes though, Batman threw towards him a steel harpoon that went to stick into the wall behind the thug.  
"You missed me", mocked that one.  
"Really?", replied the Dark Knight, before pulling back the harpoon and detaching a piece of the wall that knocked out the holder of the pink gem.  
Batman then turned his attention back to Ombrion, "Will you continue to send me against your men on a suicide mission, or will you eventually decide to fight me face to face?".  
If Ombrion could have been livid for the anger in that moment, he would have showed it; instead, he simply pulled out from his back a double cut axe made out of black steel and pointed it out to the hero, "I can promise you this...Your suffering will be so slow and painful that you'll regret the moment that you screwed up our plan!"; he then flew across the room, waving his axe to intimidate the opponent, when he clashed with Batman though, his weapon was blocked by the metallic parts that were present on the hero's costume.  
Ombrion rapidly freed from that situation and started tempesting the Dark Knight with ferocious and aggressive hits, but he was no match, as Batman countered every move he made, deflecting everything he threw on him with the agility and the power of an expert warrior.  
After various failed attempts, Ombrion tried to slam the axe onto Batman's head, but the hero blocked that hit too and stunned the commander with a kick, sending the axe flying into the air, before grabbing it and breaking it in two parts.  
In that instant, the doors of the room opened up and all the Quartzes of the zoo dropped in, leaded by Jasper.  
Ascertaining that the situation had turned against him, Ombrion glared at the caped crusader one last time, "Don't think that you have won this war; this was just a warming up", he said, before disappearing into a dark smoky cloud along with the remaining warriors.  
Batman then turned his attention to the gems that had entered into the room, "What took you so long?".  
"That Ombrion had erected a barrier of dark energy that blocked our path", replied Jasper, "Whenever we tried to take it down, overpass it or take another way to the main room, that thing just respawned itself every time".  
"It doesn't matter, I taught them a lesson on your part", he replied, before returning to the Diamonds, "Steven is safe and sound on Earth; I stopped the ones that were sent to kidnap him before they could even lay a finger onto his body".  
Despite the awkwardness of the situation, White Diamond was the first one to recover from the shock and take the word, "We are grateful for the help of tonight, Batman; we owe you a great favor".  
"You don't owe anything to me", replied the vigilante, "This is just my way of acting: protect the ones that need help".  
"Who were those dark creatures and what did they want from the Diamonds?", asked Spinel.  
"We'll find it out together", said Batman, "I kept in hostage one of those soldiers; maybe he'll tell us the things that we are looking for".  
"Really? How do you think you can make that being speak?", asked Jasper sarcastically.  
Batman just looked at her with a little grin on his face, "You'll see".

When the thug regained consciousness, he found himself hanged by a cable tighten to his knees, suspended over the dark void of the space.  
Suddenly, the cable that was holding him brutally tensed and he was pulled up quickly; a few instants later, he found himself face to face with Batman, who was surrounded by both the gems and the Diamonds.  
"I'll ask you only once and no more: what does Darkus want from the Diamonds and why has he tried to attack both them and the son of Pink Diamond?! Answer me!".  
The soldier was paralized by the fear, yet he was still able to respond, "I don't know anything about Darkus intentions! I was just sent with Ombrion as an escort soldier, I did not know precisely what was his main purpose!", he spoke, defending himself, "Please, this is all I know, I swear on my own life!".  
"Swear to me!", replied Batman aggressively, before the cable was released, making the shadow being fall into the emptiness below.  
"Don't you think that this is a little exaggerated?", asked Shy Rose Quartz.  
"When you are dealing with beings like this, you must not show the slightest mercy", countered Batman,while stopping the cable and making it reverse.  
"I personally agree on this fact", commented Yellow.  
When the thug returned, Batman pulled him closer, "Isn't this enough for you? I warn you that if you don't give me the answers that I want, the next time I'll release you, the cable won't stop you from falling!".  
"I swear that I did not know anything about the true purpose of this mission!", answer the soldier, now more terrorized than ever, "The only thing that I can tell you is this: Ombrion was mumbling something about absorbing powers and prepare a ritual while we were getting rid of the guards!".  
"What kind of ritual?!", insisted furiously the caped crusader.  
Before the thug could have answered, something weird happened: his body contorted frenetically and then melted into a dark mist; however, right into the middle of the mist, a pair of flaming eyes appeared, glaring at all the presents.  
"Those eyes", though Jack/Batman, "It's impossible!".  
"Don't you think that you have gained a victory, Batman", spoke the pair of eyes with a cavernous and distorted voice, "You have only stopped a miserable part of my plan; I'll arrive to submit the Diamonds and the son of Pink Diamond in one way or another, and you won't be able to prevent it".  
"Not as long as I'll be able to prevent your moves", replied the caped crusader.  
"Things change; mark my words, hero", he evidenced with disgust the last word he pronounced, before dissipating along with the mist.  
Batman turned back to the Diamonds, "What is the meaning of all of this?".  
"That our world's safety is in danger", answered White, "Batman, we would like to speak to you in private; we have some important things that we need to discuss about".

When Batman and the Diamonds returned to the main room, White started trafficking with the main communicator, searching frenetically for something.  
"What is the main reason for all of this privacy?", asked Batman.  
"It's about this", answered White, selecting a file and opening it wide-screen, "I warn you, this is a secret that we have guarded for thousands of years; you must promise that you will never tell anyone about it".  
"I solemnly swear to you that I will never talk with anyone about this", sworn the Dark Knight.  
"Very well; to facilitate you the lecture, I have translated the gem language in English", spoke White, showing the image to Batman; the picture represented a text that recited these words:

_"When all the five heroes will be reunited_

_they'll fight against the evil darkness together and united._

_Their unity will be our salvation, the opposite our doom_

_Because only together can they win, or else they will lose"._

"Is that some kind of prophecy?", asked Batman.  
"Yes, it is", confirmed White, "But before you could know further about it, you'll first have to be informed about past: thousands and thousands of years ago, before the beginning of the our empire, our population was forced to fight against a dangerous rising enemy; Darkus, a ruthless dark Lord that wanted to conquer the universe by exterminating everything in his path; the war against his obscure army was ferocious, the losses were enormous for both the gems and the shadow beings, but in the end we managed to win and destroy Darkus's armies".  
"And the prophecy?", insisted Batman.  
"For many years we thought that it was all over and that we would have never ever faced this menace again; but after the end of the Rebellion lead by Pink", here White stopped and looked at the other two Diamonds awkwardly, "We may jump this part, it's could be complicated to explain it".  
"Indeed", said Batman, even though he secretly knew everything about it, "You can continue, if you want".  
"As I was saying, after the Rebellion, we discovered this prophecy hidden in the depths of our Homeworld, but at the time we all thought that this was some kind of mistake; however, with the events that have recently happened, we have no doubt that the prophecy is starting to fulfill itself; unfortunately, we don't have any idea about who these five heroes will be".  
"The prophecy speaks of 5 heroes that will join their forces in order to defeat Darkus and save the fate of the universe", said slowly Batman, "Probably the reason why Steven was attacked, is because he is one of the five heroes".  
"Why are you convinced that it's him?", demanded Yellow to the caped crusader.  
"Think about this: has Steven fulfilled some important achievements in recent times?" questioned them the hero, yet he already knew the answers.  
"He's right", said Blue concerned, "But if Steven is really one of the five heroes, we must protect him from further attacks that Darkus could send against him!".  
"I may have an idea about it", suggested Batman, "You could call the Crystal gems and tell them to keep an eye on Steven during daytime; as for me, I'll patrol both Beach City and Homeworld, in order to prevent surprise attacks that could strike him or you during nighttime".  
"The idea sounds good", commented White, "But the problem is that the we aren't exactly on good terms with the Crystal gems".  
"Maybe they'll agree after the attack of this night", replied Batman, "Now, if you excuse me, I have to go".  
"You are allowed to leave, Batman", said White, "Thank you for your services of tonight".  
Batman bowed to them as a sign of respect and then quickly left the room; outside of it, Spinel and the other gems were waiting.  
"What did they tell you?", asked Spinel curiously.  
"Unfortunately I can't tell you much about it", replied him, "But I can tell you this: Steven is in danger and I must protect him".  
"How are you gonna protect him?", questioned him Jasper.  
"I'll patrol his city nighttime from dusk till dawn, if it'll be necessary", he countered, while pulling out one of his devices; after pressing a few buttons on it, he activated it, generating a portal of white energy.  
"Stay on the alert; I've got the feeling that sooner or later something of big may happen", he said to them, before walking into the portal and dissappear with it, leaving the presents speechless.

Back on Earth, after Steven went to bed, the three Crystal gems were discussing about the events that had occurred during that night.  
"I'm not sure that keeping an eye on Steven constantly during daytime could be a good idea", suggested Pearl, "I mean, he could easily suspect that we are hiding something from him and we all know well how he reacts when he discovers it".  
"Perhaps, but if the Diamonds are right about the fact that he's in great danger, we should definitely look after him, despite the fact that taking orders from the Diamonds is not what we usually do", commented Garnet.  
"What about that Batman that has protected both them and Steven this night?", asked Amethyst, "I mean, I don't think that he's a menace, but isn't it kinda suspicious that suddenly a guy dressed up like a fictional hero drops in and chooses to stay on our side?".  
"I agree with you", commented Pearl, "We don't know his intentions, but we are not sure either if he's not a bad guy or not".  
"If I were you, I would prepare for the worst", spoke a deep voice over them; all three of them turned around surprised and saw Batman standing on the top of the house's roof looking at them, "The real storm has yet to break loose".  
"Wow, you really know how to make an entrance with style", said Amethyst impressed.  
"I practiced it for years in order to perform it", replied the caped crusader, "Anyway, before I leave, there's something about Steven that I need to tell you".  
"What is it?", demanded Pearl immediately.  
"The attacks of tonight were done for a major reason; there's a prophecy that speaks of 5 heroes that will defeat Darkus, the leader of the creatures that have tried to harm Steven and the Diamonds, and he believes that he's one of those 5; about the Diamonds, Darkus wants to absorb their powers to resurrect".  
"What are you gonna do to prevent this?", asked Garnet.  
"You'll have to keep an eye on Steven during daytime, while I'll keep mines on both him and the Diamonds during nighttime", spoke Batman.  
"How can we know we can trust you?", asked Pearl.  
"What do you think about it?", questioned them the Dark Knight.  
The three of them looked at each other awkwardly, "Well, we don't think that you're dangerous, we believe that you want to give us a hand", said Amethyst; however, when they looked back at the place where Batman was standing a few seconds before, he was gone.  
"But we could also be wrong", added Garnet.

Ombrion kneeled down in front of the throne of his Lord, waiting for the rage of his master that would have come quickly, after referring to him all the events of that night.  
"So, to make a long story short, both the kidnapping and the attack against the Diamonds have failed all because of a dark vigilante dressed up like some kind of Earthling animal; and you, my most faithful general, haven't been able to prevent them?", asked Darkus with a note of anger in his voice.  
"My Lord, I assume all the responsibility for the failure of" "SILENCE!", interrupted him brutally the Dark Lord, "Our strategy must change, Ombrion; from now on, mistakes won't be anymore an option".  
"Yes, my Lord", he said, before rapidly leaving the throne room; after he left the place, Darkus's eyes lit a black and intense fire, "This Batman will pay dearly for getting in the way between me and my goals;I will make him suffer and with him everything he cares about!".

**A.N; Okay everyone, the big thing of the fiction has been revealed: there's a prophecy that speaks of 5 heroes that will join their forces in order to defeat Darkus and save the fate of the universe! Who these five heroes are gonna be? You'll have to wait to find out!  
****Also, since Steven universe future has gone on hiatus again, this means that I'll have to wait an eternity for the next episodes to come out (Dammit!).  
See you on the next chapter and Happy Holidays!  
****Jack8090.  
P.s; I know that I took some elements from future, like the fact that the pearls no longer work for the Diamonds and the liberation of the Rose Quartzes, but these are just small things that don't make a huge difference**


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Three days after the events of that night, things radically changed for both Steven and Jack: the young hybrid couldn't go anywhere he wanted without noticing that some of his friends and the gems were constantly keeping an eye on him, a thing that annoyed him so much, but unfortunately he couldn't do much about it to avoid it.  
He wanted to talk with Jack about the situation, in order to let off steam a little; however, every time he called him with his phone, he always found the voice mail or Alfred to respond to him, with the latter telling him that Jack was very busy or too tired, depending on the time he called.  
As for the young billionaire, things weren't simple for him neither: in fact, he was using all his strength during nighttime in order to patrol both Beach City and Homeworld accurately, and the stress of those sleepless nights was so pressing that it made Steven seem like a trifle.  
He could barely recover a fraction of what he spent sleeping, and he knew that at that rate he couldn't continue; however, the mere thought that his enemies might have taken advantage of his slightest moment of weakness, kept pushing him to continue that tiring round.

At the fourth night after their first encounter with Batman, the Diamonds, along with Spinel, were standing at the balcony of what once was Pink Diamond's Palace, contempling their world during a moment of brief pause, after another hard day of trying to fix some of the many issues that had grown after the beginning of the Era 3.  
"You must have been be so affectioned to Pink Diamond; from what I've seen you can't avoid staying away from her things for a long time", commented a voice behind them; all four gems turned around to find the Dark Knight standing right on the top of the palace's roof, "Oh, sorry for breaking this moment, but I couldn't avoid making you a little surprise visit", justified the hero, while gliding down to them.  
"Don't worry, you didn't disturb any of us", replied White, surprised to see again he night vigilante, "Speaking of something, how have you been doing with your patrolling?".  
"You wanna have a honest answer?", spoke Batman, "It's killing me: having to look after two places within a single night it's not just some thing that you can do; it takes a ton of energies, and it's a miracle if I've been able to resist for three nights without collapsing because of the fatigue".  
"Then why don't you just give up?", asked Yellow, "If it is such a stressful task for you, why don't you just, as you humans say, take a break? We have our guards here that do the same thing as yours".  
"If I had wanted to, I would have done it since the first night withou thinking twice", answered back the caped crusader, "But the thought that one of those beings could take advantage of it to put his filthy hands on you or Steven haunts me whenever I'm not in action".  
"So, you're practically constantly dealing with the decision of giving up on this life or not", added Blue, "It must be a great trouble for you".  
"Yeah, it is", affirmed Batman, "And Alfred keeps repeating myself if I intend to continue on this path or abandon it".  
"Who is this Alfred?", asked Spinel curiously.  
"He's the person that took care of me since I was 7", replied Batman, "He's also the butler of my family".  
"What is a butler?" demanded White.  
"Well, a butler is a working profession, in which the person who chose it performs various services to those for whom he puts himself at their services", explained Batman to them.  
"Sounds like what our Pearls once did for us when they still served under our power", commented Yellow.  
"Indeed, but Alfred is also free to stop providing his services for me if he wishes, unlike the Pearls from what Steven has told me", in that instant Jack cursed his own tongue and when he looked back at the gems, he had confirmation of what he had done, "I guess you could say that I've overtalked".  
"I'd say so", replied White, "We are all starting to think that you haven't been totally honest with us".  
"In this case, the show's over", spoke Batman, while pulling back the cape and revealing his face, "Maybe it's time for me to tell you the truth: my real name is Jack Stevenson, son of a rich and wealthy family and about how I got to know Steven Universe, it's because I met him and made friends with him".  
"And does he...?" "No, he doesn't know that his newest friend is secretly a vigilante who dresses up like a bat and spends the nights fighting against paranormal creatures; and this is a thing that I want to keep as a secret to him".  
"But why?", asked Spinel, "Why are you lying to your friend and keeping your second life a secret to him?".  
"Well, let's all consider the matter", replied Jack, while playing with his mask, "Steven has already been through a hole bunch of messes up all because of his mother double identity, which has put all of these troubles's consequences onto him; I don't want him to suffer for a second time all because of the double identity's problems of a person that is close to him, and yet, after spending time with him, I still don't know what to do; reveal the truth to him or continue this masquerade forever".  
"This is indeed a problematic situation", commented Blue, impressed as the others after that revelation.  
"I personally agree on it", said a voice with a British accent that was coming from the left arm of Jack's suit, "Sorry to interrupt this meeting sir, but I have some important informations that you should lend your ear to".  
"Excuse me for a second", said Jack to the gems, before talking to the communicator on his arm, "Alfred, before you can tell me what you have to say, please don't tell me that you have been hearing it for all of this time".  
"Your butler secretly listened to our conversation?!", asked shocked Yellow.  
"I'm afraid so", replied the voice, "Anyway, there's something of great importance that I need to tell you: the device in our hideout that signals the appearances of those shadow creatures has detected the arrival of a numerous group of them, which is currently heading towards Beach City".  
"But that's impossible!", exclaimed Jack, "Steven should be sleeping safe and sound in his house at this time!".  
"That is correct, but maybe I have something that could cast doubt on your claim, sir", countered Alfred, "From the phone calls that I've received from your friend Steven in these last days, I've deduced that because of the strict vigilance plan that you have secretly imposed on him, he's become stressed and upset; now, since I know from some *ahem*, personal experiences, that teenagers often tend to react by rebelling against these types of rules in unpredictable ways, I'm afraid that he may have given himself a little escape without everyone's knowledge, giving those creatures a chance to catch him".  
"Even if this were the case, would you explain to me what kind of reason could have led him to flee without anyone..", suddenly, a thought he hadn't given too much importance resurfaced from the depths of his mind like the wreck of a ghost ship from the depths of the sea, "Wait a second...Isn't that horror band's end of tour concert he told me about tonight at Beach City's Pier?".  
"Give me a few instants to check it out", spoke back Alfred, before answering back, "It is, sir and it will begin in about half an hour".  
"Shit!", cursed Jack, "Prepare the car and some heavy equipment, I'll be there as soon as possible!", he added before putting back on his cape and turning his attention to the gems, "Steven is in danger and it's all because of my fault".  
"What are you going to do then?", asked Spinel.  
"I once sworn to you that I would have protected him at all costs from those creatures", countered him, "And that's exactly what I'm gonna do tonight", he added, before jumping down into the void and gliding with his mantel, disappearing behind a building nearby.  
"Good luck, hero", wished for him White along with the others, without noticing that something of dark was moving behind them though.

"Thanks for accepting my invitation, Connie", said Steven to the girl while the two headed to the concert that would have taken place in a handful of minutes.  
"You're welcome, Steven", replied her, "But aren't you worried about the fact that the Gems could be worried about you?".  
"Naaah, they'll be fine", spoke him, secretly lying since he had escaped without telling anything to anyone that night, "I mean, what's the worst that could happen during a night concert?".  
"I don't know, an angry Kevin seeking revenge againts you after the humiliation of the other night?", suggested Connie a little bit worried.  
"Yeah, maybe you're right", commented Steven, "What would you say if we went to say hello to both Sadie and the others before the concert starts?".  
"That sounds good", agreed the girl, "But we better hurry, they will start in about a quarter of an hour".

A few instants later, they had reached the backstage were they found and greeted Sadie with the Suspects, who were getting ready for the show.  
"How did it go with the tour?", asked Steven to the band, "Did you guys have a good time?".  
"Dude, the tour has been one of the greatest experiences of our life", replied Buck with a dreamily tone, almost enjoying the reminding of all the things they had experienced, "Party all night long, thousands of fans cheering for us".  
"Someone who always took you and Jenny back to the hotel when you two overdid it", added Sour Cream sarcastically.  
"Hey, I helped you guys out a couple of times", justified Jenny.  
"Speaking of other things, Lars has told me about the car race of some nights ago", spoke Sadie, "Is it true that Kevin lost to a guy who brought a Batmobile against him and that he ran away terrorized after it?".  
"Yeah, it's all true", confirmed Connie, "But speaking of him, Steven, why hasn't Jack showed up in these last days? Is he okay or something?".  
"I wish I could know about it", answered the hybrid, "I've tried to call him like a zillion times during these last days, but every time I was answered either by his butler or by the voice mail; it almost seems like as if he's trying to avoid me".  
"Maybe your friend has just been a lot busy lately", suggested Sadie, "Who knows, maybe he could do a surprise visit this evening; okay everyone, it's showtime!".  
"Connie, can I talk to you for a second?", asked Steven to the girl, "But not here, it's important".  
"Uh? Sure, why not?", answered back her, while following him.  
Steven led her to the back of one of the stands, out of the sight of any indiscreet look, an ideal place to make his move.  
"Okay Steven, what do you have of so important to tell me, that you brought me out of sight of everything and everyone?", asked the girl, playing anyway the game of the boy.  
"_Okay Steven, this is your chance; it's now or never, just be careful not to mess everything up_", thought him, before taking a deep breath and grabbing the hand of Connie with his, making the girl blush a little, "Connie, I've been thinking recently that our friendship between the two of us, a bond so strong that we both know that nothing could ever destroy, maybe has become more than just a simple relationship", he interrupted for a second while blushing too, "And... I know that the next words that will come out from my mouth may sound cheesy to you, but" "Don't stop it", assured her, despite the fact that she was almost as red as he, "Go on, despite how cheesy you may sound".  
"_Okay, here it goes_", he thought, while kneeling down in front of her, "C-Connie Maheswaran, I, Steven Pink Diamond Universe, member of the Crystal gems and possibly the biggest idiot of the galaxy... I'm in love with you; and there's nothing in this world that could make me change idea about it, so I'm asking you: Would you be my girlfriend?".  
The question remained floating in the air for what Steven perceived as an eternity, before Connie answered the question with the answer that he was waiting for, "Yes, I would be your girlfriend", and with that, she leaned onto him and kissed him on the lips; a slow, passionate and intense act of love that tighten the two lovers into a bubble of isolation, just like the one that Steven had formed the first time they met each other; the atmosphere could have possibly stayed uninterrupted like that forever, if it wasn't for an explosion that suddenly broke the kiss between the two teenagers and reclaimed their attention.  
"What was that noise?", asked shocked Connie to Steven.  
"I don't know, but I've got a bad feeling about it", answered the boy to her partner, before bolting out with her to see what could have caused that detonation.

People and gems were running away terrorized, as those things who looked like miniature storms with flaming eyes flew all around like swarms of wasps, destroying everything that they encountered on their path, like stands and amplifier speakers.  
"What are those things?", asked Connie terrorized, as she saw them destroying and attacking the audience; suddenly, one of those creatures saw the two of them and shouted, "It's over there!", recalling the attention of all the others.  
"Connie run!", the two teens tried to run away, but two of those creatures fell behind them and seized them, wrapping the couple in a durable grip and bringing them to the stage, where other of those beings were helding as hostages Sadie and her band.  
"Excellent", commented one of them that looked like to be the leader of those creatures, who was wearing a dark armour, "It seems that in the end you have finally decided to join us, young hybrid".  
"Who are you?", demanded Steven, "What do you want from me and my friends?".  
"My name's Ombrion, Leader of Darkus's armies and his supreme adviser", replied him, "And about what I want, it's just a simple request: I want your powers, so I can use them to revive the vital essence of My Lord!".  
"Sir, what do we do with the girl and those musicians?", asked one of the shadows, while looking at them with a beastly look.  
"Oh, those weren't part of the plan, they're just a secondary matter", answered Ombrion with slight annoyance, "Kill them!".  
"NO!", but before the order could have been executed, five little metallic blades struck and disintegrated with the rapidity and the violence of a thunderbolt the shadows who were blocking Connie and the Suspects, confusing each one of those creatures.  
"Oh, not again! Show yourself, you filthy demon!", shouted Ombrion, a moment before something of black fell on them and kicked with a kick Steven's immobilizer, allowing the boy to free and reunite with the others.  
"Batman's here! Flench him!", ordered Ombrion furiously to the others.  
"Okay, who has a plan B?", asked worried Buck.  
"You all will escape by using the backstage; except for you, Steven", answered Batman, grabbing the boy by his arm, "You'll come with me; they just want to get their hands on you and if you come with your friends, you'll put them in greater danger".  
"What do you have in mind then?" "Just prepare yourself", he answered, while pulling out from under his cape what it appeared to be a strange gun and pointing it againts the shadows; however, when Batman pulled the trigger, the gun shot two cables: one of them snapped in the air, going to tie itself on one of the metal beams that held the spotlight; the other one went to stick far on the top of the Funland gate.  
Right after that, Batman took the boy by his side and pulled another button, rewinding the cable and going up with it; then, the wheelf of the cableway in the harpoon did the rest of the job, allowing the two to overpass Ombrion and his soldiers and arrive safe and sound to the entrance of the park before starting to run away, while the others escaped by the backstage.  
"How the hell does he get all those damned gadgets?!", asked Ombrion to himself while the two were getting away.  
"Why don't you just go ask him, boss?", for this silly question, the unfortunate shadow was pulverized by a jet of flames that came from Ombrion's hand.  
"There's a change of plans", spoke the obscure general in a tone that bordered on pure anger, "Ignore the humans and chase those two; take me the hybrid alive and **kill that cursed bat!**".

Batman and Steven ran away from the pier, chased at distance by the shadow creatures sent by Ombrion.  
"We need to get out of here, get in the car!", said Batman to Steven, while leading him to an alleyway nearby.  
"What?", before Steven could have asked more, he saw the answer to his question right in front of his eyes: a big, black, shiny and slick car, with accentuations on its back edges that looked like the wings of a bat (A.N: to have an idea of what this Batmobile looks like, imagine a crossover between the Keaton mobile and the Tumbler, with a pinch of the concept design that was initially thought for the first Batmobile during the pre-production of Batman Forever).  
Almost as if the car had sensed the presence of its owner, the sliding roof of the vehicle opened up, allowing the two to get inside; the internal was in black leather and had enough space to contain at least six persons, aside from the many control panels on the front part.  
"Leave everything to me and brace yourself", advised him the Dark Knight, while closing the sliding roof and turning on the engine, which responded with a powerful roar.  
After bolting out of the alley, the Batmobile zoomed on the first road out of the city, closely followed by the flying thugs of Ombrion.  
"We have them on our heels!", warned Steven, seeing a handful of them getting closer and closer to the vehicle.  
"Leave them to me", simply answered Batman while trafficking with the controls; without any advice, he violently maneuvered with the steering wheel and did a 180 degree steering and inserted the reverse gear at full speed, facing in this way the creatures.  
By pressing another button on the control panel, two machine guns emerged from the superior sides of the car's hood and by using two side buttons on the steering wheel, he started to fire against the upcoming enemies and taking down the closest ones; by steering the car and aiming for the creatures with a trigger on the control panel, most of them were taken down in no time.  
However, a handful of those managed to avoid the swarm of bullets that had come in their way and still kept chasing the Batmobile, slowly gaining more ground on the vehicle.  
"Okay, looks like someone here is insistently asking for heavy weapons, doesn't it?", commented Batman, while retreating the machine guns and pressing another switch on the control panels.  
Immediately, two bursts of razor-sharp discs shot by small launchers that emerged from the two sides of the car quickly mowed away the last chasers, allowing the driver to return the car to face the road again.  
"Where are we going to?", asked Steven, "Where are you taking me?".  
"To my refuge", simply responded the Dark Knight, "If I take you home, you could risk suffering another attack and this time you might not have the same luck as before; it would be better to retreat to a quieter place to wait for the waters to calm down".  
For the next minutes, the Batmobile proceeded firm and quick on the road, darting towards the unknown destination that its driver was willing to reach; Steven tried to memorize the track that the vehicle was taking, but due to the obscurity outside he had trouble with recognizing the road that his savior was driving.  
When he turned around for a second, to examine better the caped crusader that had saved him, he did not notice that a part of the road not far from where they were heading had collapsed like a drawbridge, leaving an entrance to a mysterious underground tunnel that Batman drove into without thinking twice.  
"WHOA!" "Relax, this is just the secret entrance to my refuge, you don't need to freak out about it", assured him Batman, while keeping driving into the tunnel illuminated just by the car's headlights.  
After a while, the tunnel opened up into a colossal cave with a ceiling so high that in Steven's opinion could have contained even a jumbo jet; Batman then parked his vehicle on a platform nearby, before finally turning off the engine, "You can get off; follow me".  
Steven followed up Batman without saying anything, but at the same time he contemplated the weird hideout of his savior; there were various working tables filled with blueprints, weapons in a still precarious working condition and many components of black suits that were neatly stored in metal shelves waiting to be assembled.  
They then reached a gigantic computer, which was turned on by Batman, who used it to activate a program called "Shadow Hunter".  
"What does that program do?" asked Steven.  
"It's like a radar that tracks down the movements of those creatures", replied Batman, as he gestured with the keyboard, "I've been trying to find those creatures for years and only now I've been able to track them down and follow their movements; this is how I was able to act and intercept their attacks; and judging by the results of the radar, it seems like that those things are gone, at least for this night".  
"Why are you hunting them?" "This is not in your business", replied him coldly, before talking again, "Sorry for the response, Steven; I must confess that it was not my intention to get to this".  
"What makes you say that?" "Because I am the one who suggested to the gems to keep an eye on you constantly; I thought that you would be safe in this way, but obviously I had not foreseen such a reaction from you; and in the end, it went like this".  
Steven was completely upset after that revelation, "Wait, you're the one who planned all of it? Who are you really and why are you looking after me?".  
"We all wear masks during our lives, Steven, and this", he spoke while pointing out his cape, "It's the one that I chose to wear in my personal battle; by the way, I'm sure that you will forgive me".  
"For wh", before Steven could have finished his question, Batman injected him something, and a few instants later, he collapsed on the ground, asleep.  
"I'm sorry, my friend", mourned Jack, taking off his cape and observing his friend sleeping, "But I had to do it for your own safety".

"Sir, you can't keep doing this, you know all too well how it will end", scolded him Alfred a bit later, when he came to observa what his master was doing.  
"I know it, Alfred; but what other choice do I have?", replied Jack, while carrying his friend and depositing him into the Batmobile.  
"I know very well how you feel about your personal struggle", continued the butler, "But you can't deny that the company of your new friend and his family has had a positive effect on your psyche".  
"Alfred, what do you really mean by this statement?", asked the young man while putting his cape back on.  
"I mean that I do not intend to spend the remaining years of my career at your service, suffering from the loss of dear friends or their children", answered honestly the old man, "I suggest you think about it; good night, sir", and with this he went away, leaving his master to reflect about the last words he had said.  
"I know what you mean, Alfred", he mourned as he got inside the car and turned the engine on, "But this is the life that I chose to live".

Back at the Crystal gems's temple, all three of the gems were waiting anxiously for a miracle to happen.  
"Do you think that we should alert the authorities about Steven's disappearance?", suggested Amethyst worried.  
"Do you really mean it?", asked Pearl, surprised by the behaviour of the purple gem.  
"Duh, what else should we do?", replied her annoyed, "He will not reappear as if by magic at the front door, we must warn someone  
"And tell them that a guy dressed up like Batman has took him away somewhere? They would believe us crazy", replied Garnet.  
However, without any advice, the sound of the brakes of a powerful car caught their attention; they all rushed out to see what it was and much to their surprise, they found out a big black car with Batman next to it, who was holding Steven into his arms.  
"Steven!", Pearl was the first one who rushed down to the Dark Knight, who handed her the sleeping burden that was holding, "What happened to him?".  
"He's fine, he's just sleeping", assured her the caped crusader, before returning to his car.  
"Wait, are you leaving without saying a word?", demanded Amethyst, "We didn't even thank you!".  
Batman faced them before turning the engine of the Batmobile on, "And you'll never have to", with that said, he slipped away in the darkness of the night with his vehicle, leaving behind him three gems astonished and a sleeping Steven.  
"Who do you think was that?", asked Amethyst speechless.  
"This will probably remain a mystery to us", spoke Garnet, surprised as the others and for the first time without an answer.  
"Alright, come on now, let's take Steven inside", said Pearl, returning to the house at the temple with the others

Ombrion entered into the throne room, but before the doors could have closed, the voice of Darkus reached him, "There's no need to inform me about the events of this night: I know that you failed again, Ombrion".  
The general bowed down, waiting for the punishment to come; but it never came, "But there's no need punish you either; despite your miserable failure, I made up for what you haven't been able to achieve", he spoke, making appear something on the right side of the throne: it was a dark bubble, with all the gems of the three Diamonds inside of it.  
"M-my Lord, this is a miracle", mourned Ombrion, impressed more than ever to see what he had in front of his eyes.  
"There will be time for the compliments later Ombrion, now listen carefully", replied the voice of Darkus with a serious tone, "That old friend of Pink Diamond, Spinel, despite my efforts, has been able to escape and I fear that she may cause us troubles, so now all you need to do is to go on the Gem's Homeworld with as many troops as possible and start the ritual for my resurrection immediately, and I warn you; this time failure **is not** an option!".  
"Yes, my Lord", answered Ombrion, before dissappearing into a dark mist.  
When Ombrion left the room, Darkus started slowly to laugh again, "Perfect, everything is proceeding as I had planned; soon, when the ritual will be executed, I will regain my true and complete form, along with my powers, and there'll be nothing that the son of the last of the Diamond could do to stop me!".

**A.N; And finally, here we are, another chapter ready to sky rocket itself to the sky! The story is reaching its highest climax, so stay tuned for further chapters, because we are preparing for the big part!  
I wonder what 2020 has in store for us...Well, two other fanfics that will link up to this one in order to continue the adventures of my Batman in my personal trilogy, that's for sure!  
See you onto the next chapter!  
Jack 8090  
P.S; I personally think that the TV show will probably have its conclusion this spring or close to that date; I mean, some of the specials aired during that period and the time frame that it took from the movie to the airing of the first four episodes of future is more or less the same, unless we get a hiatus just as long as the one that occurred before the airing of the 5th season's ending episodes (I also hope that the ending will tie everything up and won't let anything loose).  
**


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Steven woke up in his bed, awoken by the sound of an intense discussion coming from the lower floor of the house; the last thing that he remembered from the past night was that he felt something stinging his arm and that after that, he had blacked out.  
"Steven!", the young hybrid was invested by the combined exclamations of Lapis and Amethyst, who rushed right in front of him when they saw that he had woken up, "Are you okay, buddy?".  
"Yeah, I guess so", said the young hybrid, "What's going on down there?".  
The two gems looked at each other worried, before Lapis took the word, "Maybe it's best to let you rest for a couple more minutes before letting you know what is happening".  
"Why? What happened of so terrible?".  
"Weeelll", began Amethyst with an hesitant tone of voice, "It's nothing of too important to worry about, but yesterday night, while you were asleep, those shadow beings that had attacked you and Connie at the concert took over Homeworld and" "THEY WHAT?!", exclaimed the boy, getting out of the bed as if someone had given him an electric shock, "Why didn't you wake me up? The Diamonds are part of my family too!".  
"We learned about it only this morning, chill out dude!", replied Amethyst, "Anyway, we're all down there, including Spinel, who was present at the moment that it all happened, and all the zoo gems, with the exception of Agatha and the Zoomans, who have remained to the orbiting zoo".  
"What are they waiting for? We need to do something about all of this!" "We are waiting for you to come down, so we can make a decision about what to do".  
Steven however was not ready for that revelation, as it struck him like a thunderbolt in a clear sky, "But... But I don't know if", Steven's words were interrupted, as a big and bulky gem entered in the room and quickly closed the door behind her; and that gem was Jasper.  
Both Lapis and Amethyst assumed a battle position, but the orange gem noticed that and she scolded them with a dry answer, "You two don't need to fight me, I'm not here to beat you and headbutt Steven again", before turning her attention to him, "At last you are awake; that fusion sent me here to check you".  
"Really?", asked sarcastically Amethyst, "That doesn't sound like a thing that Garnet would have said, especially since she knew that both me and Lapis were here watching Steven, while waiting for him to wake up".  
"I agree with you", agreed Lapis, "And frankly, the fact that you only came here to see if Steven had woken up, is not even something you could have done of your own free will".  
"Jasper", said Steven calmly to the gem that was once one of their mortal enemies, "Why did you come up here? Answer honestly and maybe we could talk about it".  
The Ultimate warrior groaned with frustration, before starting to talk again, "Alright, if you really want the honest version, there it is; since the day you sent me with the other Quartzes in the space zoo... slowly, thanks also to their company and attitude, I began to realize that... Everything I have ever done was mostly wrong: all of my actions were the result of the rage that I had stored for centuries because of my Diamond's actions.  
I started to feel like I owed to you and the Crystal gems", she looked at Lapis and Amethyst at that point, "And maybe to some of you in particular, an apology, but my warrior honor conflicted with this decision.  
However, when I came down to Earth with the others this morning, I met with Garnet while waiting for them on the outside... Well, of course it was more a brief fight than a meeting... But after it, when I spoke to her about my intentions, she told me that she knew how I was feeling and that I should have solved this matter by listening more to my conscience than to my honor, for once... And that's it", she concluded, a little more orange on her face than before she had started talking.  
There was a long silence after that declaration that had left everyone shocked, before Amethyst hugged Jasper, much to everyone's surprise, "Yeah, this definitely doesn't sound like a thing that Garnet would have said".  
Jasper was flustered by that unexpected reaction, "Wait, what do you think are doing, runt?".  
"Well, duh, I'm hugging you sis!", replied the purple gem, "And here I thought that you had actually changed; but since you still really are the same jer..", the next thing that happened totally caught her off guard: Jasper caught her up and gave her a ruffle to her hair in a friendly and cockish way, "That's the Amethyst I know; I guess you could say that I'm part of the family now", she added, being reciprocated with a smile from Amethyst.  
She then turned her attention to Lapis, who was still silent after that scene, "Lapis... If you have a chance one of these days... If you are okay about talking about fusion or anything related to it... Maybe we can start back up again... But if you feel uncomfortable about it, it's okay for me".  
Lapis was unsure of those words, especially since they had come out of the same gem who had forced her to keep a fusion that had signed her almost as much as her prisony into the mirror; the sincerity of the quartz soldier, however, seemed fine to her, so after a minute of silence, she started speaking again, "What we both have done was something that was the result of hatred and anger, and that's a thing that we couldn't forget easily... But I am favorable to start over again; who knows, maybe one day I could change my mind about fusing".  
"Thank you", she responded, before turning back to Steven, "About you, Steven... Damm, I can't think of a thing to say!", she cursed, slamming her hand onto her face.  
"You don't need to say anything, Jasper", answered back Steven, "In fact, I think that mom would have been proud of you if she had been here right now".  
"Do you really mean it?" "I do", replied the young hybrid, smiling to the gem that was once an enemy to them, being reciprocated with the same coin by the warrior; it wasn't that cruel smile that Jasper used to show them while fighting, but a sincere one, which Steven was convinced that the Ultimate Quartz hadn't shown for a long time.  
"I see with pleasure that in the end you did the right thing", said Garnet behind them, while entering into the room.  
"Did... Did you just stay behind that door all this time only to see what would have happened?!", spoke Jasper, slowly feeling a sensation of anger and embarrassment rising up her mind.  
"Maybe", replied the fusion, while adjusting her visor with a smile, before getting serious, "But we will discuss about it later; you all better come down, especially you, Steven".  
"Why?" "There's someone downstairs that has something to say to you; and you better prepare yourself, because I have the feeling that it's gonna be something of vital importance".

When Steven had heard from Amethyst that everyone was down there waiting up for him, he didn't expect to find out how MANY of them were actually there: the Uncorrupted gems, Connie, Lars and the Off Colors (Fluorite was outside, while her nose protruded from the window in the living room), the Famethyst, the Pearls, practically everyone he knew was there; however, there was one person in particular that he didn't expect to find there, and that person was Alfred.  
"Alfred, what are you doing here?", asked Steven, surprised to see the butler of his friend.  
"Pardon me for arriving at a time of such great crisis for you and your family, Master Universe", began the old man, who was holding a black leather bag in his hands, "But I have some important things to report to all of you concerning my young master".  
"What kind of news are you talking about?", asked Pearl.  
"And why did you just come to talk about it and not Jack?", demanded Steven roughly, surprising everyone with that tone.  
"Well, Master Jack would have liked to come here, I can assure you, but unfortunately" "No no no, let me guess", interrupted him Steven sarcastic, "He had so many things to do because of his job and so he sent you here as his messenger to do some bidding that he did not want to do!".  
"Steven!" "I'm not calming down, guys!", replied him furiously, "I've been trying to call Jack for days, but all I ever got was a response from Alfred, who constantly told me that he was too busy to talk to me!", he shouted, before turning to Alfred, "You know what? I'm starting to believe that your master has no concern for the people he knows and tries to make friends with and that he's just one, big, selfish, spoiled...".  
"This is an outrage!", exclaimed the butler, bruised in face, "In all my years of service, I've never heard such comments about my Master!".  
"Then explain something to those who know him, or so it seems, this", asked Steven, "According to him, his life has never been easy since he was 7 years old; Can you tell us why?".  
At that point, Alfred simply opened the leather bag he was holding and pulled out an old newspaper, "This, is the reason, Master Universe".  
The newspaper was a copy of the New York Times dated 16 years ago, and it reported a title in large letters that said **"Armed robbery ends in tragedy; the director of the Star Tech corporation killed along with his wife; the couple's son injured and traumatized"**; the main page also featured a big photograph of a police officer escorting to an ambulance a wounded and unconscious child.  
The newspaper left everyone in the room completely shocked to discover that huge tragedy; Connie was the first to recover, "Oh my goodness!", she muttered, covering her mouth, "He saw the assassination of his parents right in front of his eyes!".  
"That tragic night signed him both phisically and mentally", continued Alfred, "Practically, the murder of his parents marked the premature end of his childhood; the day of the funeral he walked away from the church, with tears of sadness that streamed across his face, refusing to attend to the procession; he kept repeating that it was all his fault, that he should have done something since he had been there, and the only thing that I could do in that moment was just to try to console him, repeating to that destroyed child that things would change for the better, while I knew inside of me that nothing would have ever been the same as before".  
"This is all deep and everything", said Jasper, impressed by the drama story, "But what does all this have to do with what's going on now?".  
"If you allow me to finish this story, you'll have all the answers you want at once", replied Alfred, "After the funeral, the next five years of Master Jack's life were some of the most depressing of all: no matter how many new films came out at the movies, no matter how many new games I bought for him, no matter how many times I tried to make him feel happy, he did not show any signs of cheering up; all that happiness that he possessed before the accident, seemed to have vanished from his life forever.  
Then, one day, the last day of the summer of his twelfth birthday, something changed into his persona: he seemed more mature, serious, determined and full of new life; at first, I thought that he had shaken off the pain of losing his parents, but, poor me, how wrong I was! Master Jack's new determination did not come from the desire of starting over, but from the desire of avenging his parent's death.  
From that day, he started to train his body and his mind with the hardest phisical and psychological trainings, pushed apparently by the desire of vengeance and justice, but I knew that deep down inside, he was trying to suffocate the guilt that is still haunting him today.  
After finishing high school, instead of going to the university, he assumed Lucius Fawcett as the main administrator of his dad's society and private teacher, in order to learn how to lead his own business without giving to the media the idea of an inexperienced leader; secretly, Lucius helped him to create everything he needed to carry out his project: his inventory, his vehicles, his secret refuge and his costume".  
"Wait a second", interrupted him Peridot, who just like the others was getting closer to the unbelievable truth, "You are telling us that Jack, our Jack, is really...?".  
"Yes, you are right", confirmed Alfred, while pulling out something of small out of the bag, "Master Jack, the head leader of one of the biggest billionaire business of the world, is secretly Batman", and with that he dropped the object that he was holding onto the table: a Batarang.  
"And these", he said while pulling out other newspapers, who were reporting titles of illegal activities and notable criminals arrested by a mysterious vigilante dressed up like a bat, "Are some of the most notable things that he has done during his years of career".  
Steven, just like everyone else in the room, was just speechless; his friend, a person whose appearance looked so simple and innocent, was instead a person full of secrets and dark sides... just like her mother was.  
The boy looked at Alfred for more, "Why did you come here and unveiled us his secret?".  
"Because now is a determining moment for my master's life", answered the butler, "During all the years after that night, he has always put his secret job as a justice vigilante before everything else, ignoring the things that were maintaining him human, like true friendships, a thing that only recently, thanks to your company, he has rediscovered again; now, since there's a battle up ahead waiting for all of you, including him, I need you to remind Master Jack of his human side, before he forgets it completely and becomes Batman forever".  
Steven looked at everyone into the room, receiving looks of approval, before answering to Alfred's demand, "Take us to him then".

"No... No, no, no, no, no!", mourned Jack with growing preoccupation, while the alarms of the cave's computer rang so loud to awake the colony of bats that was sleeping on the ceiling.  
"How the hell did they get around me and my surveillance?!", shouted the young man, while trying to get a hold of the situation, "How could I let all of this happen?!".  
While he reflected on how to organize a plan, or at least the sketch of it, to counter that desperate situation, he couldn't avoid thinking about that pair of flaming eyes that he had seen the night of the attack at the space zoo.  
He could firmly swear that he had already seen those eyes, because they were the same as the ones that had appeared... The night his life was changed forever.

_It was a cold night of January; a family had just left the cinema: a man with short black hair and a smart expression on the face, a woman with long brown hair and a severe, yet gentle face, and a seven years old boy, who still had on his face the adrenaline of the movie that they just had seen together._  
_"That movie was awesome!", said the little boy with a large smile on that face, "It was one of the most amazing and epic things I've ever seen!".._  
_"I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed it, Jack", said the man, "Although I might say that despite the fact that The Return of the King is an incredible movie, I still prefer The Two Towers over it".  
"Alex, despite the fact that Jack is happy, I'm not sure if it was a good idea to show him that movie", said the woman with a little of concern in her voice.  
"Elizabeth, try to understand", replied Alexander with slight annoyance, "Jack loves this type of movies and he's not afraid to watch them; he saw Mission Impossible, Batman, Superman, he's fine with this kind of things".  
"Speaking of Batman, is it true that they're working on a new film, dad?", asked Jack curiously.  
"I can assure you that they're Jack", replied the father with a smile to the son, while leading the family to an alley illuminated by some dirty lampposts nearby, "And I promise you that I'll take you to see it as soon as it will be released".  
"Alex, why did you lead us here?", asked Elizabeth slightly worried.  
"I don't like this place, dad" "Calm down, son, it's just a little shortcut for the car", replied the father; however, the group hadn't even covered half of the alley, that a figure with what it appeared to be a dark raincoat stepped in and blocked their way.  
"What do you want?", demanded calmly Alexander, while wife and son stepped behind him; the figure, without saying a word simply pulled out a gun and pointed it at them.  
"Okay, you made the concept clear", said Alexander, while pulling out of his pocket his wallet and throwing it at the feet of the robber, "Now disappear, before I call the police!".  
The man, however, had no interest in the wallet and did not stoop to pick it up or lower the gun; and in that moment, without any advise, the first shot went off and hit the father in the chest, making him fall back, at the feet of his family.  
The wife screamed in horror, but her scream was cut short, as a second shot hit went off shortly after, hitting her and making her body fall at the feet of the boy, who simply stood still where he was, paralyzed by the terrible scene that had quickly happened under his eyes.  
The man with the gun then pointed the weapon at Jack's head, while also starting to speak with a cavernous and macabre voice that chilled the blood of Jack's veins, "Tell me, kid", he begun, while a pair of flaming eyes appeared on his undefined face, "Have you ever tried to live with the breath of death constantly on your soul for more than ten thousand years?".  
Jack couldn't possibly make any sound, while the man slowly started to laugh; not just any laugh, but a laugh so evil and deep that it seemed to absorb the few light emanated by the lampposts.  
"So you are supposed to be the Heir of the Bat?", questioned him the man, while his bosy trembled like an hologram, "I'm not impressed at all".  
In that moment however, someone shouted from behind the mysterious killer's shoulders, "Stop where you are! Throw the gun on the ground!".  
The killer turned around to see what was going on, not realizing that while doing that, he inadvertently lowered the gun and shot another bullet, that however hit the kid on the right shoulder instead of the head, missing his fatal target.  
Jack fell back because of the bullet's impact, before starting to black out because of the pain; the last things he remembered was hearing more shots, seeing the body of the killer of his parents vanquish like a dark mist and hearing someone shouting at someone else to call an ambulance.  
_

_The day of the funeral came a few days later; the St. Patrick Cathedral was full of many men and women dressed in black, with one man in paricular who was sitting in the first row, while trying to comfort the little boy with a black suit, who was looking down, as if the floor of the place was more interesting than the procession.  
"Lord Almighty, welcome in your wide kingdom the souls of our brother Alexander and of our sister Elizabeth", continued the priest, "Grant them eternal rest and peace of mind and lead them to eternal life".  
While he was talking, the kid slowly got up and walked towards the exit, followed by the other man who had tried to calm him down; once they got outside of the cathedral, the man called for the kid, "Master Jack, what are you doing?"  
When the boy turned around to face the butler of his family, his face was covered by the hot tears that were coming from his eyes, "Alfred...It was all my fault...I should've done something, I was with them when it all happened and I couldn't do anything! It's just my fault if they're dead now!".  
The butler just simply approached to the child and hugged him slowly, "Master Jack, nothing of all of this was your fault...Remember what your father used to say? Why do we fall? To get back up on our feet again; things will change for the better, Master Jack, you just got to have faith in the things that you'll do to form your destiny and never give up on ideals that you'll chose to follow"  
After those words, Jack stopped sobbing and finally returned the hug, "Thank you for being in my life, Alfred"._

After that day, everything that had happened in the following years seemed like memories of another life to Jack: the period of desperation, the discovery of the cave, which would have become his first refuge, the hard and painful training to prepare his body for what would have waited for him on that path he had chosen, the creation of the inventory, his first actions... And the meeting with Steven and his family.  
Alfred had told him that the company of his new friend and his influence were having a positive effect on his persona; however, Jack was unsure of dragging Steven into the world of crime fighting that he was experiencing, especially after discovering the actions of his mother.  
Jack looked pensive at his costume, replaced into a bullet proof glass case; since the day he had discovered that cave, he had chosen to follow a dangerous path, a decision that Alfred had always contested him, despite the fact that he was his accomplice into that matter .  
"But is it really this the life that I want to live?", he used to ask to himself when he was alone, like in that case.  
Suddenly, the sound of the elevator doors opening brought him back to the reality; believing that it was Alfred as usual, he jumped off the chair, heading to the elevator, "Alfred! I need your help immediately! Those shadow creatures have...", the sentence died into Jack's mouth, as so his walking, as he saw Alfred emerging from the darkness... Along with the last person he would have expected to see into his refuge: Steven.  
"What the hell are you doing down...?", but Jack had the answer immediately, as the latter looked furiously in Alfred's direction, "Alfred".  
"I'm sorry for this betrayal, sir", justified the middle aged man almost mortified, "But this play of masks has gone on far too long in my opinion".  
"This play of masks is what has been holding up this hole thing until to now!", replied angrily the young man, before realizing his mistake and calming down, "But I know that you have done the right thing, so I apologize for the outburst; could you please leave us alone for a while? Both me and Steven need to talk".  
When the butler left them alone shortly after, Jack was the first to break the ice that had formed "So... I guess you're not surprised about", he gestured with his hand at the cave, "All of this".  
Steven smiled bitterly, "About what? Finding out that my new friend is secretly a vigilante inspired to a notorious fictional superhero" "That spends the nights by arresting criminals and beating the hell out of paranormal creatures in order to excruciate the pain caused by the death of his parents?".  
"Yeah, about that", said Steven after the interruption.  
"Well, good thing for me that you have an open mind", replied Jack with irony.  
"If you say so", said Steven with a chuckle, before getting serious again, "But seriously, answer me, Jack; Why?".  
Jack took a deep breath before answering, "Well, since I suppose that Alfred has told you everything, why don't you try to imagine yourself in my shoes in the moment when I lost my parents first?".  
"How did you feel?" "Awfully; it seemed like as if someone had dragged me into an horrible nightmare and left me alone sinking into its depths.  
I lost everything that night: my parents, my childhood, my willing to live... The only person that I had during the next years that followed was Alfred, who always tried his best to make me feel better... Then, one day, I casually found this place", he stopped, while looking dreamily at the cave's ceiling, "And from that moment, I realized that I could have done something myself to prevent my own tragedy from hitting someone else and at the same time avenge the death of my family".  
"So, by copying an already existing superhero and with the support of your butler and manager, you started secretly a crusade to fight crime on your own", added the hybrid.  
"Yeah, that's pretty much what I did", replied the young billionaire, before looking straight into the eyes of his friend, "Look buddy, I'm sorry for not telling you about all of this, but after you told me the consequences of your mother's actions and with my job pressing onto me... I felt that it would have been the last drop for you".  
"I forgive you for not telling me the truth", replied Steven calmly, "I understand that you were trying to protect me from the danger and repress the pain, I comprehend your actions and frustration just like my mother did before you.  
But now you can't keep hiding forever from your past and present; you must come out to face it, but this time you won't be alone".  
Jack looked surprised at his friend, before hugging him without any advice, "Thank you, Steven; you're the best friend I've ever known in years".  
Steven was about to reply the hug, but in that moment a series of metallic sounds echoed from the direction where Steven had came from, along with a very familiar voice screaming the name of Amethyst.  
Jack sighed with little frustration, "I guess that you're not the only one to which Alfred has told everything, aren't you?".  
Steven smiled nervously, before Jack took the word again, "Alright, let's go and see what is going on there, before your family makes a mess".

Fortunately for Jack, Amethyst had only accidentally knocked over a small table with a pile of batarangs, so she didn't cause any major damage as Jack had supposedly thought; after a small reunion and an update about the situation on Homeworld, Jack gathered everyone around a weird table, that Jack explained to be a 3D generator for miniature recreations of battle simulations much to everyone's surprise, in the west part of the cave.  
"Okay, after everything you told me, let me understand the situation and by the way, thanks for the coffee, Alfred: so, Ombrion and his army took the Diamonds hostage and occupied their palace as a main base with a vast army of shadow soldiers and demons", started Jack, while the computer generated a 3D image of the place, "Practically, they've barricaded themselves and at the same time conquered a good strategic position; a direct attack would practically be like commiting a suicide move".  
"So, what's your plan of action?", asked Garnet.  
"Well, If they've locked themselves into the palace, we will force them to come out from where they're standing: we will divide in different teams, with each one of them operating into different places, with each of them carrying some of these bad boys", he said, while pulling up some strange metallic spheres, "I've got plenty more of these explosives; each team will have to place them into random points into the city", the computer showed with red dots various locations nearby the palace, "In order to drag the attention of Ombrion and his thugs; once they'll have the suspect of an imminent counter attack, they'll come out to of the palace and once this has happened, we will attack them; the more they'll be divided, the weaker they'll be".  
"Little question: how are we going to get on Homeworld without getting noticed if all the Warp Pads are under their control?", asked Peridot.  
"Simple; Alfred, light please", ordered Jack, while the butler pulled a switch on the computer and illuminated an enormous circular portal placed in the east side of the cave, "Introducing my own version of your Warp Pad; with this thing, I will teleport all of you on Homeworld without anyone of Ombrion's army noticing it and yes", he added, noticing some of them looking akwardly to the device, "I've tested it on both living beings and objects, so you don't need to worry about".  
"Back to the plan, while you'll fight againts the creatures, both me and Steven will try to rescue the Diamonds and beat the hell out of Ombrion and if you're gonna ask me how we will get inside without getting noticed", Jack interrupted and pointed his finger at the ceiling, making everyone realizing that for the whole time they had one of Jack's vehicle above their heads: the Batwing (A.N; this one is pretty similar to the one in the 1989 movie, but less bulkier and much slicker).  
"Yeah, that's how we're going to get there", continued Jack, "Any questions?".  
"Yes, this plan is a total madness!" "But it's the only one we have, unless some of you has something better", replied Jack, "Any other questions?"  
"Just one more", said Amethyst, "How are you gonna pass unnoticed if Ombrion doesn't see you in the battle?".  
"Good thing that you mentioned it", he said, "Luckily the Batwing luckily has a mimetic mode, so all I've got to do ii to activate it and my vehicle will blend in with the sky, while as for giving Ombrion the illusion of me being into the fight", he added, while pulling out a key from his pocket, "Lars, would you like to have the honor of driving the Batmobile in order to distract Ombrion's attention?".  
"Are you serious?" "Yep", replied Jack, throwing at him the key, "Just please, don't wreck the car and deal any serious damage to it, or else repairing it will be a sufference so long that I don't want to describe it either".  
"Shall I prepare your costume, Sir?" "Not this time, Alfred, this is not the case of the basic costume", replied Jack, while heading towards a pedestal with something covered by a blanket.  
"What's that thing?" "The thing underneath this blanket is an advanced suit with special modifications that I called", he said, while pulling off the blanket and revealing a dark and grey suit with a bat with wings wide open on the chest plate, "The Sonic suit!".  
"Master Jack, despite the fact that the suit is complete, you haven't tested it yet" "Well, I think that today will be a good day to test it out", replied him, "Besides, It's time to finally see what this new thing is capable of, so come on guys; It's time to face the darkness and kick its butt!".

**A.N; Okay everyone, I know, that I made another late delivery and that this chapter's ending sounds a little cheesy, but hey, everyone sooner or later faces off those days where you are forced to put your fun time away in favor of your own business (and yes, it happened to me too); however, your patience has been rewarded with a new chapter, which finally lays the foundation for a confrontation between good and evil (although you should expect another, and this time longer, hiatus, since it will take me a lot of effort to write it, but be patient), so stay tuned for more!**

**Jack8090**


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Why is it taking you sorcerers so long to complete this ritual?", demanded Ombrion impatiently, "It's been quite a while since you two started it and still, you're telling me that I'm not allowed to resurrect Lord Darkus!".  
Two shadow beings, whose bodies and faces were covered by a black cloak surfaced by red blood lines, bowed down to him as a sign of respect, "Try to hold back your impatience, Lord Ombrion", justified one of the two with a calm tone of voice, "The powers hold by the Diamonds are so ancient and powerful that is natural for the ritual to take longer than necessary to perform; furthermore, it's already taking a lot of our efforts to keep it together, so it is important that you should wait", the sorcer's words were cut off as he found Ombrion's sword a few centimeters away from his throat, "Then maybe this will give you a valuable incentive to accelerate things!", spat out Ombrion, while pulling him closer to his face, his eyes flaming with an unstoppable rage, "Now open those ears of yours and listen carefully: I've been waiting for this moment to happen in the most remote parts of this universe for thousands of years and I won't be waiting anymore time of my existence further! So let's put it in this way: accelerate the process or you shall suffer the consequences of experimenting my long repressed wrath! Is that clear enough?!".  
"Y-yes, Lord Ombrion", responded the sorcerer, while heading back with his other companion to the center of the room; the throne room of the Diamonds's Palace had been severely altered after Ombrion's attack: the walls were striated by dark lines that spread across them like dark veins, while the thrones remained intact, with the exception of Pink's, which had been shattered and reduced to a mountain of crystal debris.  
As for Blue, Yellow and White, they had all been tied up to their respective thrones with some sort of ropes made of black smoke; the two sorcerers had casted a spell on those ropes, as they were slowly absorbing their powers and concentrating them into a multicolored sphere right above White's throne; their source of power wasn't the only thing that was reducing, however, as in that moment they were just as tall as Opal.  
"Sorry about this scene, Diamonds", said sarcastically the dark general while mimicking a bow to them, "I'm just trying to make sure that your last moments will be as painful as the sufference that you have inflicted to my Lord many years ago".  
"You haven't won yet, Ombrion!", replied sourly Yellow while looking with anger at him, almost as if she was trying to blast him off with her look, "You have made a big mistake that will be the end of your own plan and we can assure you that!".  
"Are you possibly referring to that useless jester's court that I casually let escape?", demanded Ombrion with nonchalant, "She doesn't represent even the shadow of a menace".  
"But Steven does", said Blue, "Haven't you considered the fact that once Spinel has informed him about your invasion, he'll come up here with all the gems that he could find to resend you from where you have crawled out, have you?".  
"Oh no, what a terrible mistake I've made!", exclaimed Ombrion theatrically, "How could I have made such a mistake? Wait, I know why! Because I want him to come here".  
"What?!" "Yes, Blue dear, you heard what I just said, I want Steven to come here, because the second he'll make his first step on the surface of this planet, my henchmen will catch him and take him to me chained; as for the gems that he'll take with him, they're all gonna be shattered.. Oh, and if you think that the intervention of that cursed bat vigilante could change the situation, then you shouldn't count on it".  
"What's the deal, Ombrion?", asked sarcastically White, despite the situation that she was into "Are you afraid of the fact that he might come here to ruin your precious ritual?".  
At that answer, Ombrion stopped the impulsive gesture of his right hand to take his new double cut axe from his back, but he stopped himself, although he kept looking at the matriarch with a poisonous look," You're lucky that I'm saving my strength for the big event of today, White, or else you'd have been cut in half by my hands along with your precious gem! But I'm saving energies for Steven; Oh, yes!", he added, while looking slyly at the Diamonds after he nominated the boy's name, "Because I've got a few plans for that boy: the second he'll be taken to me, I'll rip his gem off his body and then", he interrupted, while extracting his axe and making one of his fingers slide on its sharp surface, "Well, I spent ten thousand years without spilling a drop of blood and frankly I feel a little rusty, so I don't see why I shouldn't get back in shape by killing Steven; it also seems that according to the shamans that human blood can not only accelerate the regeneration process, but also fortify those who are resurrected".  
The diamonds were livid by rage, "If you even dare to lay one of your fingers on Steven, we" "What are you going to do? Throw me down into the depths of your planet?", demanded Ombrion with a mocking tone, before starting to leave the throne room and shouting to the sorcerers, "Keep up with the ritual you two and don't stop until every drop of their power will be absorbed! You know well what awaits you in case of failure!".

While that was happening inside the palace, there was a flash of white light into the skies of Homeworld and a moment after that, a black flying vehicle shaped like a bat suddenly appeared from nowhere.  
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Batwing's captain speaking, we've finally managed to get outside of the warp and" "Do you really have to do this, dude?"  
"Hey man, I'm trying to lower the tension of this situation!", protested Jack, "Humor is often the best way to lower the tension!".  
"Considering the fact that we're in a situation where humor is the last thing to think about, I think that it would be a better idea to concentrate on the mission rather than doing the captain", replied Steven seriously.  
"Thanks for the help, negative nancy", replied Jack "As I was saying, we've finally got outside of the warp tunnel and... There's nothing of great importance to see outside of the windows thanks to the terrible weather", he said, looking disappointed to the sea of dark clouds that was standing around the vehicle.  
"Wait, did you just say terrible weather?", asked Blue pearl from the comlink, "But that's impossible; on Homeworld it never rains or snow, there's never a weather change!".  
"Tell that to the sky then; dammit, I can't see anything!" "I would suggest to lower your altitude in order to have a better view of surface, sir", said Alfred.  
"Okay then, I'm going down, but first it's better to put up the camouflaged mode, just to be sure to that we will pass unnoticed", replied Jack while pressing some buttons on the control pad and moving the control trigger forward, in order to make the Batwing descent.  
"Okay, now the visual is starting to become much better", he said, as the thick and dark clouds started to reveal something up ahead, "Anything that we should be informed about, Garnet?".  
"Garnet can only see the possibilities of the future, Jack", replied Pearl, "She's not some kind of fortune teller".  
"Look, from my point of view, the way Garnet sees the upcoming produces the same effect as the ability of that alien that could predict the many possible futures in that science fiction movie with those secret agents", countered Jack.  
"You mean?" "I mean that until that the prediction has happened, you constantly stay in suspense, fearing for the most disastrous possibility to HOLY THUNDERING STORMS!".  
"What? What is it?" "Guys, you won't believe what we're seeing in front of our eyes", simply said Steven completely shocked.  
Alfred turned on from remote a camera that was placed underneath the surface of the Batwing and the images that materialized on the screen of the Batcave's computer left everyone breathless: the palace of the Diamonds was surrounded by a wall several meters high that was as black as the coal and looked pretty darn solid, while the top part was shattered with a dense thunderstorm that stormed and converged itself into that opening; as for the other buildings surrounding it, there wasn't a single trace of life coming from them.  
"Well, now I understand why Spinel said that everyone evacuated the planet in panic; unfortunately it's too late to come back now", commented Jack, "Guys, no matter how hard this situation can be, we're sticking with the plan; Alfred, start sending them on Homeworld with our warp pad, but wait for sending out the Batmobile with Lars; we need Ombrion to see it during the attack, otherwise he'll get too suspicious, so send it here with Lars after the beginning of the battle, got it?".  
"What about you up there?", asked Amethyst.  
"I'll keep an eye on all of you by using the radar on my vehicle, while I also start twirling around the palace, just in case of security", replied Jack, while turning the device on; five minutes later, he started receiving the movements of all the gems, with the exception of the Pearls, who had remained at the Batcave with Alfred to monitor the situation.  
"Okay, Alfred is sending you the coordinates of specific locations in the nearby area", said Jack, "All you need to do is place the explosives and detonate them; believing that they are under attack, they'll come out of the palace and that's were we enter in action".  
"This is madness, we'll be outnumbered by their army", said one of the Amethysts "We don't even reach a hundred!".  
"Hey, don't let the panic take the best out of your mind!", replied Jack, while adjusting the comlink in order to be heard by everyone, "We have an important advantage: they don't know how many of us there really are here on the planet, we have to make them believe that we are the ones who are outnumbering them; ten gems must look like ten thousand, a handful of punches must appear like a storm of punches! This is what we have to take a chance onto!", after he said that, a lot of consensus mumbling was heard through the communication line.  
"I've got to admit it, boy", said Jasper with a small note of impression in the voice, "You really know how to motivate the ones who have lost their hopes".  
"Lucius has been an excellent teacher to me", simply said back Jack.  
"Wait, you mean that Lucius?", asked Steven surprised, "The man that is currently managing your father's corporation?".  
"Precisely; you see, before entering into the world of finance and economy, Lucius was originally an army engineer, one of the best to be more precise".  
"What exactly is an army engineer?", asked Rhodonite perplexed.  
"An army engineer is a specialized engineer who occupies the role of mastermind into the army and organizes all the things that the soldiers need: weapons, tactics, plans of strategies and so on.  
Lucius was the best and when he retired from that job, thanks to his diploma in economics that he achieved before entering into the army and his vast experience, he quickly became the best manager in the economical field; luckily, he and my dad were good friends and after he went to work with him, Lucius became part of my family's industry".  
"Dude, you need to tell us more about your life", said Steven impressed from behind, but Jack cut him off, "Let's save that for later, now we have a plan to put in motion!".

Ombrion got outside of the palace, contemplating the amazing, yet darkened view, of all the colorful buildings that extended under his sight and groaned, disgusted by that chromatic wasteland; the first thing that he would have done, once he had resurrected his Lord, would have been destroying that awful waste of rocks by simply generating a gigantic dark hole that would have engulfed what would have remained of the planet.  
He then pulled out the weapon that he was holding onto his back; the double cut axe made of dark bronze resplended into the low light that was coming from the thunderstorm above.  
"Lord Darkus, your patience has been rewarded", mourned Ombrion while admiring the axe, "Your desire of resurrection is almost done; we only need for that hybrid to come here on the planet and then the ritual will be completed".  
Just when he thought that everything would have proceeded as planned, a loud series of explosions that caught him by surprise echoed around the palace perimeter; as if one of those explosion had happened inside the dark walls, many of the soldiers that were guarding on the wall started to run and mess around in panic, "We're under attack!" "The gems are attempting a sortie!" "We're all gonna die!".  
"SILENCE!", shouted Ombrion, his voice echoing all over the place, before commanding to the soldiers to go out and search for the responsibles of that attack.  
While the army started to dispatch out of the fortress, Ombrion thought with a grimace of rage, "Okay, young hybrid, if this is the game that you want to play... Then you'll be satisfied with our presence!".

"It's official", said Jack with a sly smile, as he looked down and saw various shadow soldiers moving out of the dark fortress, "The cats are out of the bag!".  
"What did you say?" "It's a figurative way to say that our enemies have all fallen into our trick!", replied Jack slightly annoyed, "Anyway, they're going to arrive where you are standing soon, so get ready to rumble! Alfred, start teleporting the Batmobile and Lars with it; let's set this show on fire!".  
A handful of minutes later, the battle was raging all over the streets of Homeworld; even though the army of Ombrion had the numerical advantage, for every dozen of them there was a gem ready to take them out.  
Fusion gems did not facilitate things for them either: Alexandrite was smashing everything in its path using all of her weapons and her ability to spit fire, taking down in this way many of Ombrion's strongest warriors.  
The latter, by the way, was using the communication system of the planet, furiously searching for Batman; he hadn't digested the last humiliation that the caped crusader had inflicted to him and was trying to find the vigilante in order to conclude their personal fight.  
Unfortunately, the only thing that he found was the Batmobile, which was dazzling in the streets of the planet and blasting with every incorporated weapon everything and everyone in its path, thanks to the coordination given by Alfred and the surprisingly quick reflexes that Lars was demonstrating.  
"Whoa! I completely forgot about those flamethrowers that I installed when I upgraded the car a few years ago", commented Jack as he saw a blaze of flames coming from below.  
"Do you think that Lars is going to be okay?" "Relax dude, Alfred is looking after him; besides he has the automatic pilot and ejection seat in case of extreme measures", said Jack to Steven, "But now we need to concentrate buddy, it's time for the most dangerous part of the plan".  
"You mean that part where we let ourselves fall onto the Diamonds's palace?" "Yeah, that part", replied Jack, "This is supposedly going to be easy, since both of us can glide, I mean, you can float because of your powers and I've got my mantle, but still, there's going to be a good dose of risks".  
The Batwing was in that moment right above the dark energy vortex above the palace; Jack pressed a handful of buttons and then turned back to Steven, "Okay, I set up the autopilot, all we need to do now is to jump out; are you ready?".  
Steven nodded firmly, "Let's do this".  
"Okay then, let's do it at three", said Jack, as he opened up the glass and took off his security belt, "One... Two... Thr", in that moment a lightning from the storm hit the Batwing with a tremendous violence, making Steven fall outboard, but not Jack as he remained stuck because of the mantle.  
"STEVEN!" "DON'T THINK ABOUT ME!", he shouted on response, as he fell "I'LL DO IT MYSELF! GO LOOK AFTER THE OTHERS!".  
"Dear God, please protect that boy", prayed Jack with concern, as he deactivated the autopilot and returned to the battle.

"Sir, the battle is becoming impossible to sustain", shouted one of the soldiers through the communicator to Ombrion "The gems are outnumbering us!".  
"You must resist for a few more minutes, I don't want any excuses!", replied Ombrion, as he closed the communication with rage; the battle was getting worse by the second (he had even sent the sorcerers to the battle field in an attempt to slow the gems down) and he was starting to have doubts about his master's plan, until he saw something of pink flying through the storm and dive into the destroyed rooftop.  
"Well well well", he mumbled with a sly smile, "It seems like I was right about my prediction".

Steven landed into the throne room in front of the thrones, seeing shocked with his eyes in which state the Diamonds were; all of them were as tall as Garnet and the colors of their bodies seemed off, as if they had been deprived of their tones.  
"S-steven", White was the only one who talked with a very feeble and weak voice.  
"No, save your energies", replied the boy as he closed up to the thrones, "I'm taking all of you out of here".  
"You don't understand!", insisted the matriarch worried, "He's going to catch and torture you just like he did with us! Leave this place while you're still in time".  
"I won't!", countered back the hybrid, "I'm not going to leave you behind just to save myself! You're my family and the families have to stay united in the moments of the needing!".  
"How sweet", commented a voice behind him; Steven was barely able to turn around before a dark wave of energy invested his body and slammed him on the floor of the room, "Yet so predictable".  
The boy tried to get up on his feet, but he was thrown back on the leg side of the hall again by the same dark energy of before, "I always knew that you would have never renounced to the possibility of saving your precious and endangered family; how pathetic, a Diamond should never show any sign of compassion... But wait, you are not totally Diamond; you have a human side too", Ombrion raised his hand and Steven raised with it; then, he clenched his fist, as if he were crushing something and at that point the boy began to gasp, "Let's see then how long your organical part can resist in comparison with your gem part".  
"Steven!", Yellow and Blue tried to free themselves from the dark chains in an attempt to help him, but they were too weak to do anything.  
"What a touching scene", commented Ombrion without any compassion in his voice, while he kept strangling the hybrid with his powers, "If only I had the ability to feel the emotions", he looked with repulse at Steven, who was about to lose consciousness, "So you were supposed to be the heir of Pink Diamond? Honestly, you're the biggest disappointment I've ever seen; you're not even worth half the gem you possess".  
In that moment, something of strange started to happen: Steven's body started to glow pink and Ombrion felt his grip on the boy's throat starting to lose strength "What the? What the hell is this?".  
"LEAVE MY FAMILY ALONE!", Steven freed himself totally from the grip and then flew toward Ombrion with the violence of a meteor, sending the dark general flying through the room and crashing against a wall, making appear on the surface a large web of cracks.  
The general freed from his stone prison and looked with admiration to the hybrid, "Well, it seems like there's more in you than I could have ever imagined; show me what you are capable of, hybrid!".  
The two fighters charged one against the other, clashing into an intense impact of energy, smashing each other with all of their fury and ferocity and devastating everything they came in contact with.  
"Is that all you got?", that question that Ombrion let slip out of his mouth in a moment of arrogance became his fatal mistake: Steven threw him into the air with his strength, then he reached for him and one moment later he shouted to the dark general "NONE OF YOUR ARMY OR EVEN YOU WILL EVER HURT MY FAMILY AGAIN!", and with that, he slammed Ombrion with a punch, making him crash violently onto the floor and creating a giant hole with it.  
The boy then slowly descended to the ground, losing the pink glow that he had on his body.  
"Steven", said White, who was as shocked as the other Diamonds, "How could you possibly do a thing like this?".  
"I... I don't know", simply answered the hybrid, "I just...Wanted to protect yo", in that moment Steven was once again hit from behind by the same dark energy, which came exactly from the same point were Ombrion had been slammed.  
"This can't be!", the dark general was surprisingly once back on his feet, as if nothing had happened to him, "I'll admit it, I underestimated you", said Ombrion with calm, "You've been trained well", he then blocked Steven by getting him by the collar, "But you haven't been trained good enough", and with that he knocked out unconscious the boy with a single punch.

Meanwhile, Jack was busy at blasting with the Batwing's machine guns the troops of Ombrion that were trying to take over their attempts to reach out the palace; suddenly, he noticed that the storm around the palace had become much more violent, almost as if something had boosted up the intensity.  
"Sir, I'm monitoring intense energetic activities coming from the eye of the cyclone", said Alfred.  
"I've got a bad feeling about this, Alfred; I think it's time to stop with the recognition and start to bomb the palace".  
"Sir, you can't bomb the palace without risking for your friend Steven to get hurt!" "I'm sure Steven will be able to protect himself from the bombing, I know that boy better than I know myself; I'm starting the attack run on the target now!".

Ombrion was preparing for extracting the gem out of Steven's body, when suddenly the entire building was shaken by a series of detonations; the dark general growled in frustration, "What is going on now?".  
In response, another section of the palace collapsed under the weight of the next explosion and in that precise moment he saw something of translucent flying over the ceiling and into the winds of the dark tornado.  
"Batman", the answer popped up into Ombrion's head before he could have been able to pronounce it; he then saw the flying object gliding down again, this time pointing to the wall that surrounded the planet.  
"Oh, no you don't!", exclaimed Ombrion "You're not going to get away from this easily!", that being said, he raised his hand and a moment later, a powerful thunderbolt hit the Batwing, making one of the wings catch fire; a few seconds seconds later, the vehicle crashed into one of the planet's alleys.  
Ombrion, despite being satisfied of his gesture, was unsure about the death of his adversary; therefore, he activated again the communication system and ordered to send a squadron to the point of crashing of the vehicle, in order to check out if the body of the dark vigilante was still there or not.

The contorted rests of the Batwing were still burning down after its tremendous landing when the patrol team arrived.  
Unnoticed to them, a small handful of gems, including Jasper and Spinel, who had been lucky enough to escape the battle, had arrived too and was observing with horror the relics of the vehicle from a hiding spot.  
"Do you think that he might have been able to escape?", asked Spinel, worried about the possibility of having lost their precious ally.  
"Let's just wait for how they will react", simply responded Jasper, while keeping an eye on the patrol.  
"Well then?", asked who was supposed to be the commander to a soldier who had examined the crashed vehicle.  
"The vehicle is destroyed and unable to fly again, Sir", responded the soldier, "But there's no trace of the body of its pilot".  
That answer surprised everyone who was listening, "What do you mean that there's no trace of the body?" "The pilot cabinet was empty", responded the soldier, "It was likely that it was a vehicle controlled by a remote control".  
In that moment, three to four small metallic cylindrical capsules fell from above, crashing on the ground and releasing a dense cloud of a greenish grey gas each; the strange smoke soon surrounded the shadow soldiers, making impossible the eye contact with each other.  
"What is that stuff?", demanded Spinel, before a big black thing suddenly dropped off from above into the fog created by the gas.  
Instants later, screams of terror began to rise up from the mist, followed by a series of punches and metallic objects clashing with each other; before anyone could understand what was happening in the mist of gas, a terrorized shadow soldier emerged from it, trying to run away from the scene, "NO! PLEASE, SPARE ME, I BEG YOU!".  
Suddenly a figure emerged from the smoke cloud, scaring the gems away because of its aspect: it was tall, completely black, his face a monstrous mask of torching eyes and sharp jaws with two pointy ears on his head.  
The figure grabbed the soldier by the shoulders and pulled him close to his face, "Take a message to your Lord from me: tell him that devil itself is coming to get him and rip his soul out of his body; now go!", that being said, he threw away the soldier, who ran away terrorized from that creature.  
The latter then turned his attention to the gems that were looking at him and started approaching to them; Jasper and the others prepared to take onto it, but they started to noticed that the more the being came out from the smoke, the more his monstrous traits started to disappear, until he finally came out from the mist and turned out to be the last person that they expected to be: Jack himself.  
"Why are you all looking at me like that?", asked calmly the young man, "It almost seems that you have just seen a ghost".  
"You're alive", spoke Spinel shocked just as everyone else, "But... We saw your vehicle catch fire and crash... How have you been able to escape?".  
"I had previously installed an ejection device for situations like this", he simply responded, "When the lightning hit my vehicle and I started to lose altitude I simply ejected myself out of the Batwing and landed on the rooftop of one of the buildings".  
"That actually explains something", commented Jasper, "But what about your temporary monstrous aspect?".  
"It was all just an illusion created by a hallucinogen gas of my creation", replied him again, "During my period of formation, when I was starting to build up my inventory, I've been able to create in my company's labs a particular synthesized gas; anyone who inhales it becomes a victim of strong hallucinogenic attacks, which make them see everything around them in a distorted and monstrous way".  
"Do you have other things of your creation that we should be worried about?", asked ironically Jasper.  
Before Jack could have answered, a thunder echoed into the sky; everyone turned their attention to the storm above the Diamonds's palace, which seemed to have regained energy and new destructive power, "I don't have time to explain, we'll talk about it later; first I need to get to the palace as soon as possible".  
Coincidentally, a black vehicle in that moment stopped in front of them, a vehicle that Jack recognized immediately; the cockpit opened automatically, revealing Lars on the driver seat with a pair of sunglasses on his face, "Need a ride, hero?".  
"Lars, may I ask you where did you get those sunglasses?", asked Jack perplexed, before returning serious again, "You know what? Forget about it, we need to get to the palace immediately; I'll drive from now on, by the way", he added while getting on his vehicle, much to Lars annoyance.  
"Jack", said Spinel worried, "Please bring back Steven alive".  
"I once promised that I would have done everything to protect him", replied the vigilante while closing the cockpit, "And I'm not a guy that breaks promises", and with that he bolted away with his vehicle.

The Batmobile darted towards the palace, ignoring the chaos of the battle that it met on its run; however, when they finally started to see the base of the wall, Jack started to press a series of buttons on the control panel, "Hang on, Lars; now you'll see what this baby can really do when it's pushed to the limit!".  
"Bring it on!", replied back the commander, before the Batmobile darted with a speed that Lars could've sworn was over 400 kilometres towards the wall, ivesting every shadow soldier in its path "DUDE! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?!".  
"Not exactly!", said back the other, as he pressed another button, which fired a series of heavy missiles from rocket launchers hidden under the car's phanals towards the wall, with the result of making it collapse just enough to make the vehicle pass.  
"Okay, now go back and make sure that everyone passes towards the entrance we've created" "What about you?" "I've got a bigger problem to take care of!", he justified, as he got off his vehicle and began running towards the palace.

Ombrion was ready to make the last effort to complete the sacrifice; after draining away Steven's power from his gemstone, the latter by the way was still unconscious because of the hit previously received, he only needed to kill the boy and use his blood to fortify his Lord, once he would've resurrected him.  
"Finally, the moment for which I've been waiting an eternity has finally come!", with that he raised his axe, ready to commit his final act; however, his weapon was stripped away from his hands when a sharp object hit it violently, "What the...YOU!", shouted the dark general as he saw Batman standing on the entrance of the palace, his eyes locked on Ombrion, "Get away from him, you bastard!".  
Before Batman could do something else, Ombrion grabbed the still unconscious Steven and pulled out a sharp knife from his belt, pressing the weapon against the boy's neck, "Don't you dare doing anything! I warn you, do one of your tricks, use one of your damn devices and I will cut the hybrid's throat!".  
Batman was forced against his will to stop his action, "Why are you doing this, Ombrion? Do you seriously think that Darkus will somehow reward you after you'll have resurrected him?".  
Ombrion bursted into a sour laugh, "Why wouldn't he? After all, I was the only one who searched for him after his disappearance during all these centuries, I was the only one who risked its own life to search for a method to resurrect him, I was the only one who served him with the most pure and loyal devotion!", he shouted with pride in his voice, "Now I am one step away from achieving my ultimate reward! And a human vigilante which dresses up like a terrestrial flying rat won't stop me from doing what I'm about to do!".  
"First of all, bats aren't flying rats", replied the dark knight, "Speaking of other, what if I offered you a new kind of power in exchange for the hybrid's life?".  
Ombrion's smile vanished from his face at this offer, "What are you talking about? You don't possess any kind of powers!...Unless... Of course! It would explain why you were able to always be one step ahead of any of my master's plans, how you are able to win over our soldiers!", after saying this though, Ombrion started to grow suspicious towards the caped crusader, "But why should I trust you?".  
"Think of it as an offer bigger than what Darkus could give you", replied Batman with a persuasive tone, "Just imagine it: you could have all the powers of all the Diamonds, plus mine, and become the ruler of the universe; you will never have to serve someone again for a reward and you will only be in control of yourself", that being said, he crossed his look with the Diamonds, leaving them to understand that he had a plan in stock.  
"This is a rather tempting offer", mourned Ombrion, "There's only one thing that I don't understand: how do I enter in possession of these powers of yours?".  
"It's quite simple: you just need to guess the answer of a very peculiar riddle of mine, which is the key of the source of my powers" "Tell me!".  
"Very well", spoke Batman, "I see without needing to see", while talking, he started to gesture with some buttons on his belt, which was obscured by his mantle, "The darkness of the night is as clear as daylight to me", he then extracted a Batarang from a hidden compartment on his back, "What am I?".  
"Oh please, the answer is so obvious!", said Ombrion annoyed, "You're just a big, black, blind, stupid, bat!".  
"Exactly", that being said, Batman pressed one final button and his suit started to glow; before Ombrion could realize what was going on, the caped crusader threw the Batarang that was hidden behind his back towards the globe where the powers of the Diamonds had been converged; the weapon also began to make a screeching sound the moment it was thrown away, a sound so high-pitched that Ombrion was forced to leave his hostage.  
"NOOOOOOOO!", those were the last words that came out of Ombrion's mouth before the Batarang hit the globe; an instant later, a powerful flash of light, followed by a tremendously powerful shock wave, erupted from the Diamonds's palace, wiping away both the wall surrounding the building and every shadow creature that was still fighting with the gems on the planet.  
When Jack recovered from the explosion, the scenario that he found in front of his eyes was unbelievable: the palace's floor was disfigured, crossed by a gigantic crevasse, probably created after the explosion, which extended from the area of the thrones to the entrance of the hall, the latter was completely devastated by the shock wave that had passed through it.  
The Diamonds were laying half covered by the debris, but fortunately when Jack went to help them, they did not seem to have any major injuries on themselves or on their gems.  
"Are you all right?" "Was that your plan?", asked sarcastically Yellow.  
"Do you think that I had other choice?" "Where's Steven?", asked Blue.  
Jack turned his attention on the other side of the room, where he found Steven, who was on the edge of the crevasse, still unconscious despite everything that had happened to him, while next to his body there were the remaining parts of what Jack supposed to be an armor and a knife; the last remains of the dark general Ombrion.  
Steven then slipped down into the crevasse and Jack jumped right after him, in an attempt to save his friend's life; despite the cold wind cutting his face while falling, Jack managed to grab Steven's leg, before shooting upwards with his grappling hook, which luckily went to stick into a fairly solid spike of rock on the edge of the precipice, which allowed him to activate the rewinding device and go back to the surface, where the Diamonds came to meet him to take Steven back.  
"You saved him!", exclaimed White, with tears of relief in her eyes, "We don't know how to thank you".  
"You don't have to", he simply replied, before seeing behind their backs something that chilled the blood in his veins: a dark mist with a pair of flaming eyes.  
"Darkus!" "Do you really think that you've stopped me, hero?", the deep voice of Darkus had a mocking tone, although there was a hint of repressed rage that could have been perceived in it, "You've only slowed down the inevitable; I will come back to life and there will be nothing you can do to prevent it".  
"You haven't won this battle, Darkus", countered back the caped crusader, "As long as I'll breath none of your plans will be realized".  
"Do you really think that you could stand a chance against me, Batman?" "Things change".  
After those words, the mist growled like a fiery beast, "We will meet again, Batman", and with that, the mist with the eyes vanquished without leaving any trace.  
Suddenly, Batman fell on his knees, finally invested by all the fatigues that he had experimented, "No, not now", he thought, before blacking out and falling on his face.

**A.N; Okay, I know that it took an eternity for this chapter to come out, but I can assure you that it wasn't an easy experience for me to write it (trust me guys, I had a crap ton of s**t to do in the last weeks that I almost forgot about the fact that I was writing this story), but hey, if you've been able to survive to the longest hiatus of the TV show (which is now about to conclude itself; coincidentally, the four part ending episode airs the day of my birthday! Sometimes the universe grants you with unexpected gifts), I can presume that this one wasn't a huge suffering, was it?**

**Anyway, the next chapter will be the conclusive one, so prepare for the ending (for now).  
Hasta la vista,  
Jack8090  
P.S; I can anticipate you only one thing: the next chapter will reveal the next franchise that will be involved into the crossover, so stay tuned for it!  
****About the power that Steven unleashed here, it's kinda the same that has been seen in the show, but with a difference: while the one from the show is triggered by Steven's negative emotions, this one comes from his desire to protect his family from danger.**


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9  
**

Jack started to regain consciousness after what he perceived to be like an eternity; the last things that he remembered before blacking out were a tremendous explosion and a jump into the cold darkness of the void.  
"Maybe it was all just a dream caused by one of my action movies that I saw before going to sleep", he thought, before starting to look around and realizing that he wasn't in his bedroom.  
He was lying on a pink coach with a blanket covering his body with the sonic suit, in a some kind of apartment where everything was pink: the walls, the ceiling, the furniture; he also realized that he wasn't wearing his mask anymore.  
"Where am I?" "Welcome to my mom's room", responded a voice behind him, which turned out to be Steven's voice, "Nice to see that you're awake".  
"Steven? For how long have I been passed out?" "Just a handful of hours", replied the hybrid, who had a black eye, the last small gift inflicted by Ombrion, "I owe you a favor for saving my life".  
"You're wrong", said Jack back with a smirk on his face, "If I remember correctly, I already saved your life once at the concert last night; so you are indebted to me twice".  
"If I were you I would not be so presumptuous, considering also the fact that you made Alfred take a good fright" "I see... Dangit, I was so concentrated about rescuing you and the Diamonds that I completely forgot about him! I should have informed him that I was still alive".  
"Well, look at the bright side; you can make your excuses to him all by yourself now".  
That answer left Jack perplexed, "What do you mean by that?".  
"Maybe it's better if you discover it by yourself", replied his friend with a smile, while throwing him his mask, "Come on, get up now; you should definitely see what is going on here!".

The entire palace of the Diamonds was extremely busy: many bismuth were busy at fixing up the damages that had been inflicted by Darkus's raid, while various quartzes were removing the debris to facilitate the process of reconstruction; the only thing that Jack found out of place was a teleportation platform that, if he remembered correctly, was not there when he entered the throne room.  
"I don't recall seeing that thing the last time I've been here; where are all the others?" "Just follow me and you will discover it", replied Steven as they both got onto the teleport.  
When the light dissipated a few instants later, Jack found out that they were into the Batcave, although the place was now different from before: there were new areas under construction, the Batmobile and a new Batwing were located on the ceiling where the old one was (Jack was pleased to see that both vehicles hadn't been altered and were still black) and a new armor was under management in the area where he was building the sonic suit.  
"Master Jack!", exclaimed Alfred, noticing that his master had finally recovered and heading towards the two boys to greet them, "I see with pleasure that in the end you managed to recover his strength; it's a real pleasure to see you still alive, sir!".  
"You have no idea how much it is for me too, Alfred; I'm sorry for making you worry about me", replied the young vigilante, as he embraced the servant who had been like a father to him during those long years, "To my surprise I see that the cave is undergoing a major refurbishment", he added, while gesturing around at some of the Batcave's new features.  
"Well, the Diamonds felt deeply indebted to you after what you did for them and especially for Steven; so to repay this debt, they rebuilt much of the destroyed equipment", he then waved at some of the new accessories, "And bestowed a generous batch of new tools for future missions".  
"Interesting", commented Jack as he observed the new armor under management, "It kind of reminds me of that prototype that we had scrapped due to the lack of special materials".  
"It actually is", replied Alfred, much to Jack's surprise, "Your friend gem named Bismuth, while you were asleep, found out some of the discarded projects and started to build, in a pretty fast way I might add, the armor that you now see in front of your eyes".  
"Amazing; speaking of Bismuth, though, could you please tell me where is everyone?" "I frankly have no idea where the gems and Ms Connie went after they left the cave" "Same either", added Steven, "Although I heard them talk about some kind of special preparations".  
"We'll deal with that later", cut short Jack, "Any sign of Darkus's troops?".  
"I see with pleasure that you have not lost your strong passion for your job, sir", ascertained the butler, "After the defeat at your hands, it was no longer possible to pick up new signals, although it cannot be excluded that Darkus was not totally defeated".  
"It wasn't, I saw it with my own eyes as it emerged from what was left of Ombrion; we can't have defeated him... He's just retired away in in the hole from which he crawled out, to prepare for a new foray".  
"Only this time, considering the defeat he has suffered, he may not choose anymore this universe for his attacks", Alfred interrupted, noticing the concerned expression of his master and the perplexed one of Steven, "I presume that I've said too much".  
"What are you talking about? Why did you say another universe?", asked perplexed Steven.  
Jack looked at Alfred, before looking at his friend again, "Okay Steven, I know that it sounds hard to believe but... Have you ever heard about the multiverse theory? The one that talks about the existence of parallel universes?".  
"Yeah?" "Well, during one of the first experiments with the teleport, me and Lucius ended up discovering the multiverse and exploring a couple of them".  
"It sounds weird... But I believe your words", said back Steven, "So you're telling me that Darkus's next target could be one of the parallel universes?".  
"It might be", answered Alfred, "And since we know how to track down his soldiers, we might be able to discover, by linking up the computer with the server of the teleport, the universe where he's operating".  
"Then I wanna come with you if you discover where he's hiding!".  
"No, Steven", said Jack, "You need to remain here".  
"But... I want to help you! You're my friend, and friends don't abandon each other!".  
"I know, buddy... But your place is here", replied Jack with an apprehensive tone, "You have a place that belongs to you here, you have a family ... A family that, let's face it, is quite bizarre in itself, but extraordinary, and all these people depend on you; you must be the center for them to go to when they need help and at that point you will have to take on your responsibilities and help them; do you understand me?".  
Steven looked with comprehension in his friend's face, "I understand it, Jack".  
"Sir, you should come here to take a look!", called Alfred from the zone where the computer was.  
"What is it?" "Maybe it's better if you see it by yourself".  
Jack and Steven reached the monitor with curiosity and what they found out surprised them: it was an image of Homeworld's sky... With a Batsignal illuminating the scenario.  
"Looks like that this was the special preparation that the Diamonds were setting up", mourned Jack with surprise in his voice, "Say Steven, would you like to join me for the celebrations?".  
"Would I!" "I'll take it as a yes", he said, while heading to the teleport, "Are you willing to join us, Alfred?".  
"I'll come right after you, sir; I first need to set up a few things more... Ah, master Jack!", at that point, Jack and Steven stopped before they could teleport themselves, "Please, do not work too late tonight".  
"I promise you sir, it will take just a minute", replied the hero, before teleporting away with his friend.

"Do you think that he'll come?", asked Pearl while they were waiting for Steven near the Batsignal.  
"Relax P", assured her Amethyst, "Why do you think they call it Batsignal? If Batman needs to be called, this is the way".  
"I wasn't talking about... Oh wait, Alfred's coming", she said, noticing the familiar butler making his way across the crowd and reaching them.  
"Pardon me for arriving late", apologized the man, "But the Batcave's new materials needed to be treated with a careful hand".  
"You're justified, Alfred", replied Garnet with a smile, "Have you seen Steven by the way?".  
"He's with Master Jack", replied the butler, "He said that they would've assisted to the event from a very particular place; unfortunately, I'm not aware of where they could possibly be in this moment".  
Meanwhile, from the top of one of the buildings, Steven and Jack were admiring the gigantic crowd of gems that had gathered, "The Diamonds know how to do things in a big way; am I right Steven?".  
"Yeah, you're right", he said with a note of disappointment hinted in his voice.  
Jack turned around and faced his friend, "Listen Steven, I know it's not going to be easy for you to stay behind, but I can promise you one thing: if I'll be able to survive the hell that's waiting up for me, you and I will celebrate our respective birthdays at the expense of myself in the wildest way possible with everyone".  
"Are you serious?" "I am", he replied with a smile, "It's been quite a while since I had a true friend and I want to enjoy every moment of having one; Alfred was right when he said that I needed to come out of my shadow.  
Hey, tell me something, the night when I rescued you from Ombrion, have you been able to kiss Connie or...", the killer look from Steven gave him a clear signal of the _stay out of it kind_, "Okay you know what, let's just forget about it; now, come on, it's time to come out and celebrate our victory".  
"Sounds good to me; although this is technically your victory since you're the one who defeated Ombrion" "Well, this is half true; I would never have been able to win without you and your family's help, so I believe that you deserve some glory too; now come on, they're waiting for us", he replied with a smile, and with that the two advanced on the edge of the building in order to be seen, watching the Batsignal shining into the sky, while the crowd down there cheered for both of them; a future of new troubles was waiting for the two boys, but for now they were busy at enjoying the celebrative atmosphere that surrounded them.

Inside his throne room Darkus was boiling in his pit of rage: he could accept the defeat of his army, the death of his most devoted servant, but the failure of his resurrection ... This was something he would not have easily disposed of relatively quickly.  
"Curse you, Batman!", he shouted, making the entire room shake with his angry voice, "This is an insult to my honor that I won't forget easily... And when it will come the day when I'll regain my powers... I will personally assure that you shall suffer my wrath!".  
Although the rage caused by the recent failure was the primary reason for his restlessness, there was something else that it was tormenting his soul, an ancient concern to which he had never given too much weight, which, however, after those recent events seemed to claim to be reconsidered: the gaze of Batman the first night he saw him.  
Despite the fact that the detail could have seemed useless and insignificant, Darkus could almost have sworn he had seen that look before; the question was where he had seen it for the first time. Was it really possible that he, lord of shadows and ruler of darkness, had been so blind as to miss such a ridiculous detail, but that at that moment it was once again becoming so important? Was it really possible that he had involuntarily performed an act, among his various crimes committed, that was now rising from the shadow of his past to hunt him down in the form of a masked executioner?.  
As he was immersed in these reflections, the doors of the throne room opened; immediately afterwards a tall, lanky figure entered, wrapped in a black and gold robe embroidered with strange decorations. The face was withered, like a log of wood consumed by fire, while the eye sockets were empty and black, with a couple of tiny flames instead of the pupils.  
"Umbral, my new grand vizier", said Darkus from his throne, "I hope you brought me some good news".  
"Forgive this long wait, my lord", he apologized with a bow to the newly appointed councilor, speaking in a hoarse voice, as if his throat had been burned like his face, "But the task you assigned me took longer than expected; however your patience will now finally be rewarded", that being said, a handful of shadow creatures brought into the throne room a strange statue before retreating out of the place; the statue was way taller than a human being and represented a bizzarre humanoid-squid like creature wearing a strange armor.  
"Excellent job, Umbral", complimented Darkus, "As for our special guest, it seems to me rather rude not to give him a "warm" welcome".  
Suddenly a wave of dark energy departed from Darkus's eyes and invested the statue and a few instants later, a living creature was lying on the floor of the throne room, breathing slowly and deeply, "Where am I? What is this place?!".  
"Greetings to you, Vilgax, despot of Vilgaxia conqueror of ten worlds, destructor of five and creator of a dark hole" "Who the hell are you?"  
"I am someone like you", said Darkus from his throne, while appearing in his form of shadow with flaming eyes.  
"Frankly I don't see a lot of similarity between you and me", replied the conqueror of worlds with a mocking verse.  
"Don't be so superficial; you and I have more in common than you can imagine", spoke back the other, while fluctuating away from the throne and heading towards Vilgax, "We both have the same interest, or the craving for power, we are both powerful and feared beings in various places in the universe; and both, however, we have a common problem".  
"And what would that be?", asked the Chimera sui generis, starting to take an interest in it.  
"Very simple: someone whose potential we both underestimated, someone who if we had noticed it in time to get rid of it before it was too late... humiliated us and forced us to live as outcasts; someone against whom we have a deep desire for revenge, a revenge that we intend to put into effect, so that we can take back what belonged to us; does this sound new to you?".  
"At all", replied the alien, fully interested to the conversation, "However, I must inform you that I choose my allies well before making a pact; what do you want in return?".  
"Nothing of particular; I just want to have my revenge on who has reduced me in this state".  
Perceiving the anger of his voice, Vilgax believed that his potential ally was telling the truth, "In this case, then we may make an agreement; as for me, in exchange for this alliance, I want the head of the human who reduced me in the way you found me".  
"In this case, the agreement is already practically signed", said Ombrion, "I have only one last question to ask you, just to satisfy a simple personal curiosity: what is the name of the human who transformed you into a statue?".  
Vilgax breathed deeply, as if that gesture could somehow try to hold off the river of anger and resentment that he had held within him after all those years; then he finally said the name he hated so much, "Ben Tennyson".

**A.N; Aaaaaannnd, we've finally come to the end of the story! I'll admit it, I'm kind of impressed that I've managed to finish a story all by myself and it's been quite a journey (and what kind of journey!).**

**It's kinda hard waiting for the TV show finale and I'm super excited for it; I hope that the show is going to conclude gloriously with the same quality that it had when it began almost 7 years ago.**

**So, Steven Universe the rise of darkness ends here, but not the series that it has started, so stay tuned for the first chapter of the second part of my Batman trilogy; until next time, see you all!**

**Jack8090**

**P.S; yes, the next franchise included is Ben 10, but I want to precise that it's the original time line, which begun back in 2005 and continued until Omniverse and not the (crappy) reboot from 2016. **


End file.
